10. The Maunsell Sea Forts The Maunsell Sea Forts, or rather, what’s left
of them, are located right off the English coast. These were originally built in the Second World
War to serve as defensive platforms, protecting the UK against incoming German aircraft.
Construction started three years into the war in 1942, and were decommissioned just a
decade later in the 1950s. They got their name from the man who designed them, Guy Maunsell.
Guy designed these fortresses to be technological marvels of their day.
Each superstructure once consisted of a pair of hollow towers connected to a huge pontoon base.
Each of the hollow towers was divided into several different floors, consisting of things
like storage rooms, munitions depots, and crew quarters. Each tower was manned by a crew of
120 soldiers, with QF 3.75” anti-aircraft guns and Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns.
There was no need for the fortresses after the war, and so they've spent the past 80 years
gradually falling into the ocean. Have you ever seen them? Let us know in the comments below!
9. Pristine Corals Off the coast of Tahiti, scientists
have made a shocking discovery in the ocean. They found acres and acres of pristine corals
blossoming all across the floor of the ocean in what is known as the twilight zone. The coral
reef down here is so large and beautiful that it's a wonder scientists never found it before.
But what's really amazing is that it appears to be in impeccable condition. At a time when the
majority of the world’s coral reefs are being bleached by increasing ocean temperatures, this
is a huge breath of fresh air. Alexis Rosenfield, the man who led the international team of divers
down to the reef, compared it to a work of art. The coral here stretches on far into the dimness.
In total, scientists were able to measure the reef at over 2 miles (3.2 km) long,
existing at a depth of 230 feet (70 m). This is the part of the ocean where there's just enough
light to sustain life, with right below it being the utter darkness of the abyss.
We don't know what these pristine corals may mean for the future of the ocean.
Scientists have predicted that up to 90% of living coral will be gone in the next two decades. Maybe,
coral reefs like this one will begin to grow anew deeper in the ocean where they can live longer.
8. UFO on the Ocean Floor Swedish researcher Peter
Lindberg believes he has discovered a crashed flying saucer at the bottom of the ocean.
And no, this isn't just some guy at his house looking at Google Maps. Peter and his team are
very real scientists, with a successful history in recovering sunken ships and their cargo.
They were actually using sonar to look for the wreck of a ship over 100 years old that went down
carrying rare bottles of champagne when they found the mysterious object. Oddly enough, it looks like
the Millennium Falcon sitting 300 feet deep on the bottom of the ocean between Finland and Sweden.
There's no doubt that Peter and his team found something. The sonar images don't lie.
The fact that it looks like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars may or may not be coincidental.
The object is 60 feet (18 m) in diameter, and has evidence of markings in the environment behind it.
In other words, it appears to have scraped across the ground to come to where it rests now.
This suggests it crashed, perhaps millions of years ago when there was no water here.
Sadly, Peter doesn't have the cash or the resources to dive 300 feet (91 m) to
the bottom of the ocean and confirm his theory. And it hasn't helped that mainstream
scientists have come forward to dismiss his discovery as nothing but a piece of rock.
What do you think the mysterious object on the ocean floor is? Is it a spaceship
or a cluster of rocks that looks like a spaceship? Let us know your thoughts
in the comments below and don't forget to hit subscribe before the end of the video!
7. Queen of the Ocean Scientists have discovered a
beast they've named the Queen of the Ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia,
the same place Jon found his ancient bottle of beer. The beast is a huge great white shark,
so big and so old she's covered in the scars of battle and weighs over 3500
pounds (1,588 kg). Scientists with the nonprofit organization OCEARCH say she's
at least 50 years old. She's also 17 feet (5 m) long, a true monster even in the world of sharks.
Researchers discovered the monstrous shark during an expedition to tag great whites and take
biological samples. It's all part of an effort to better understand shark migration patterns
through the North Atlantic and how healthy the population is. They tagged a total of nine female
great whites, which by the way can live up to 70 years in the wild. But the Queen of the Ocean
proved to be the biggest. She likely had her first litter 30 years ago and has reproduced at least
15 times throughout her life. Researchers say she's probably a grandmother by now.
6. Ancient Beer A bottle of beer as old
as the country of Canada was discovered off the coast of Halifax, in the province of Nova Scotia.
A local man named Jon Crouse was diving off Nova Scotia’s Northwest Arm during a rainstorm when
he discovered the beer bottle resting on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. When he got to
the surface and was able to inspect the bottle properly, he couldn't believe what he found.
To give a bit of background, the Alexander Keith’s beer company imported bottles of their brew from
England to Canada between 1872 and 1890. But the preserved cork still in the bottle shows
this specimen came from even earlier, in 1820. That means it was probably made at one of the
oldest commercial breweries ever built in North America, at a time when many goods
were still coming from England. It's over 200 years old and still has bubbly beer inside it.
5. Deep-Sea Whale Marine scientists have identified a totally
new species of beaked whale. They named the new creature the Ramari’s beaked whale after a famous
Māori whale expert. The animal lives over 6000 feet (1,829 m) beneath the surface of the ocean,
so you can probably understand why it wasn't until recently that it was documented and identified.
But because of its size, it's still one of the most visible inhabitants of the deep ocean.
The Ramari’s beaked whale is distributed all throughout the world,
they measure over 17 feet long, and they can weigh over a ton. This means they're about
the same length as the huge shark we talked about earlier, except not quite as heavy.
Research shows this species of whale evolved over the last 500,000 years. Its favorite food
is squid. It's recognizable by its single large tusk sticking from its lower jaw. And the only
time it comes anywhere near the surface is when it rises to 3000 feet (914 m) to look for food. But
it doesn't hang out there for long, as it has to avoid its main predator, the killer whale.
4. 28,000 Tons of Masks There's no arguing that the pandemic has been
terrible. But not only has it been terrible for humans, it's been pretty bad for the ocean too.
And it's going to continue being bad for the ocean going forward. Scientists say that throughout the
pandemic so far, over 28,000 tons (2,540,17 kg) of related waste has been dumped into the ocean.
This means things like masks and gloves. To give you some comparison, it's as if 2000
double-decker buses filled to the brim with masks were dumped into the ocean.
Sure, this isn't quite as bad as all those plastic rings from the six pack containers.
But within a few years, scientists say much of this garbage will end up at the
North Pole. The beach outside Santa’s workshop will be a minefield of discarded covid masks.
3. Ghostly Sculptures Way back in 2005, a sculptor and
diver named Jason deCaires Taylor came up with the idea of creating underwater sculpture gardens to
draw tourists away from fragile coral reefs. While scuba diving in a coral reef may seem totally OK,
the truth is that all that heavy gear and human interference can cause damage. It seemed like a
better idea to take sculptures and dump them off the coast, keeping divers away from the coral.
Jason went ahead with his idea. He created an underwater sculpture garden off the coast of
Granada. He created a tidal installation in the Maldives, and a miniature sculpture paradise off
the coast of Australia with temperature-sensitive LEDs that turn the ocean red.
Jason was the inspiration for a lot of mysterious sculpture gardens that can
now be found across the world. Off the coast of Tuscany, A nonprofit organization even put
down 39 ghostly sculptures to attract divers and to prevent bottom trawling.
Bottom trawling is when a ship pulls a huge net over the surface of the sea floor, scooping up
everything in its path. It completely wipes out fish habitats. But with all these weird sculptures
sitting at the bottom of the ocean, they can’t do it anymore or their nets will be torn to shreds.
Now if you ever see a picture of one of these famous underwater sculpture gardens,
know it’s not just for looks – it’s also for the preservation of underwater ecosystems.
2. Giant Icefish Breeding Colony In Antarctica, scientists have identified
the largest breeding colony of fish anywhere in the ocean. It's shocking, literally shocking.
In the Weddell Sea, over 1000 feet (305 m) beneath the surface of the ocean,
there are more than 60 million active nests of icefish that were just found. These nests
are across an area of 92 square miles (148 km). There are so many nests here that the very moment
the remotely operated camera reached the bottom, researchers with the Alfred Wegener Institute saw
them. They couldn't move the camera more than a few inches without coming across another nest,
looking like a sandy crater on the seafloor. Most nests are less than a foot apart,
with a single ice fish at each one guarding its clutch of eggs, looking like an underwater bat.
Perhaps even more fascinating than the millions and millions of icefish nests is the icefish
itself. It's a creature that has evolved to live only in freezing waters. They have huge hearts
and clear blood, lacking any red blood cells or hemoglobin. There's no way for them to transfer
oxygen throughout their body, and so they simply absorb oxygen from the water through their skin.
1. Giant Ammonites Researchers have just
identified an ocean monster that went extinct 66 million years ago along with the dinosaurs.
It was discovered thanks to a group of researchers who looked at 154 fossils gathered all the way
from England to Mexico. They were able to identify the fossils as all belonging to
a single species of giant ammonite. It was a creature very similar to a modern cephalopod,
only the size of a human with its coiled shell 6 feet tall. It used to glide through
the Atlantic Ocean with its tentacles out in front of it, slurping up unsuspecting prey.
If you've ever seen a cuttlefish, it looked very similar – except of course gigantic.
After studying these fossils, scientists were able to learn that the huge ammonite came into being
about 80 million years ago. They called it P. seppenradensis. Experts believe it evolved from a
much smaller ammonite that only grew to three feet in width. But regardless of where it came from,
this was a true beast of the ocean, almost looking like something you might catch in a Pokémon game.
It’s hard to imagine how big it may have grown if not for that pesky asteroid. a
Would you dare go swimming in the ocean if giant ammonites still lurked in the water? Let us know
in the comments section below and thanks so much for watching. Remember to hit that subscribe
button and come back soon for more awesome videos from the channel. See you then, bye! :)