Divers Revealed The Most Horrifying Things They Found Underwater, Here's 30 Of The Most Spine-Chilling

The ocean hides a lot of secrets, as much as the cosmos does. We are well aware that we haven't yet discovered much of what lies beneath the surface. However, once we go deeper, we realize that there are more things to know and discover. We’re just not there yet. In an Ask Reddit thread by the user thatpizzaguy5150, he asked divers about their most terrifying discoveries underwater. The community pitched in, and the thread received more than 2k responses. Below, we compiled the 30 most interesting, most terrifying, and most intriguing finds divers from the thread saw with their own eyes! More info: Reddit

#1

I was diving off the coast of Fiji and we went through a natural tunnel (like a 10-meter cave/passage through a rock formation). So we start swimming through the cave and suddenly the light was weird, like the blue tint from the water has been replaced by a red one. Now all divers will know that this isn't only weird because the color changed but also because red is the first color to disappear after a certain depth (usually between 30 feet and 40 feet), and we were over 70 feet deep. Also bare in mind this was late morning on a sunny day. So imagine this scene: Me and my dive buddy are going through an underwater cave and suddenly everything, for no apparent reason, is tinted red, a color that you are literally supposed to be unable to see while diving at that depth during the day. Upon exiting the cave, everything was back to blue. I thought it was just me so I didn't signal to go back up. After the dive my buddy asked me if I'd seen the water tint red too. We can't explain it and the folks from the local dive shop had no idea what we were talking about. Source: MakeYouThink:

#2

Image source: gdwcifan I was diving with some friends and found a fisherman's glove with a hand still inside it. We brought the glove to the local police and they told us that they hadn't received any kind of report of a guy with a missing hand.

#3

Image source: Yeti_Hairball, dailymail I was snorkeling in the Caribbean and I got separated from the rest of the group. We had be sticking close to the shore to look at the small fish and things. Touristy stuff. I stayed behind to look at a small school of fish and when I looked up they were all way ahead of me. To catch up, I took a shortcut across deep water. I was swimming along for a while, not seeing any fish or anything, when I just saw a murky outline in the distance. You know, when you're looking at something underwater from a distance and its just a shape? Like that. But it was huge. Easily bigger than me. Just slowly swimming parallel with me. I didn't take the time to investigate it closer and just swam to shore as fast as I could. Still gives me chills when I think about it.

#4

While in Egypt I decided to go snorkeling in the ocean. Water was maybe hip deep and I am floating around just enjoying the view and the atmosphere, when I come by a sea anemone. Not expecting anything bad, I just want to float by, when this freaking Nemo (clown-fish) attacks me and hit's my goggles. I am so scared, I scream, which is a bad idea as screaming under water leads to water in your lounge, leads to almost dying, until I finally remember to just freaking stand up and take a deep breath. Stupid fish scared the air out of me. Nemo is a ruthless killer, do not let the movie tell you otherwise. Source: Steinhaut

#5

Me and a buddy of mine were diving the Edmonds Oil Pier in Washington. We're cruising along and he points his light out into the murkiness that is Puget Sound. I see this white streak in the distance. Both of us drop to the bottom and get behind one of the pylons and watch as a pod of orcas goes by. If we had been in the open water, we would have been a tasty morsel for the pod Source: creatorofstuffn

#6

Image source: dontwanttostop, Julien Willem Went snorkeling off the coast of Mozambique near an island when a dugong swam right under me. It was MASSIVE. I literally peed myself.

#7

Years ago I was having a fun day snorkeling in the lagoon in Diego Garcia. On the way back across the lagoon a pod of dolphins came up and were jumping around the boat. Shut off the motor real quick and jumped in. I'm pretty good - usually dive down 15-20'. It was amazing... Dolphins all over the place. I went down about three times. Next time I went down.. Nothing. I looked around... And then there they were. Hammerheads. Hundreds of them. All around me. Blood went cold. Panic sets in. Some small... Some as big as me (over 6') some were just monsters... I didn't panic - slowly drifted back up to the surface. When my head broke the water I suddenly realized that I was surrounded by death incarnate - and couldn't see a single one. I've never felt fear like I did in calmly trying to climb back into the boat... It was amazing. It was incredible. It was utterly horrifying.... Source: MrBDIU

#8

Was doing a drift dive down in Mexico. Saw a VERY large grouper off in the distance. Let myself drift towards it. I soon realized it was far bigger than I had thought and I was putting myself in danger (possibly). This thing could have taken me down too far or damaged my gear or knocked me out. I've seen videos of these things eating 4 foot sharks. And this bad boy was bigger than the ones in the videos. I was a bit shaken after that dive. Source: Pun-Chi

#9

Image source: EnderWiggin3rd, Diego Sandoval I was diving a spear fishing spot about 30 miles off shore. I was 60 feet under water. There I was swimming along when I noticed them a school of Mahi Mahi. There were about 30 maybe 40 of them. These fish where all between 2 and 5 feet long. They were so beautiful with their sides flashing all different colors. That's when I felt the tug on my leg. I looked down at my legs to see a 12 tiger shark pulling on my dive fin and taking me along for the ride. In a second he had ripped the fin off my foot. The shark then swam away but kept circling just at visual range. I think he was still curious about how I tasted. I kept an eye on him the whole time I was swimming back to the boat. Scariest moment I have ever had in the water.

#10

Scariest thing for me when diving was the first time I was truly in some deep water. Diving the Bloody Bay Wall in the Caymans, we go through a cut in the coral and the next thing we know we are spit out of the wall into the open ocean. Looking down you can't see the bottom and then I remember, this is the start of the Cayman Trough which goes down a little over 25k feet. Was a very primal fear that made me feel I should not be here. Source: Gindack

#11

Image source: anon, nationalgeographic Drift diving in Sulawesi, Indonesia and I glided over at least a dozen human skulls in a distance of about 30 yards.

#12

I was snorkeling in a decommissioned canal when on a family vacation in Canada. I was in 12 year old heaven, as everything I lifted had large crayfish under it. I go into a rhythm of lift, grab catch, lift grab, catch, when I saw a weathered log. I sprayed bubbles into the clear water when I realized the "log" was actually the tail of a gigantic snapping turtle. Source: zute

#13

I was like 8-9 and snorkeling in hawaii. I turned around in only a couple feet of water and a turtle rammed me full speed in the face. Scared the hell out of me and broke my goggles. Dunno what the hell it was doing Source: anon

#14

Image source: warwatch, Kay Atherton I grew up diving, as my family owned a dive shop. I've dove all over the globe, but the thing that creeped me out most happened on my local lake. I was about ten, and had taken our ski boat from the dock to a secluded cove to look for an abandoned cemetery (the lake was created by TVA in the 30's and displaced an entire town, leaving several places like this lost in the trees with no access). When I got onto the shore, I found a blanket with all the edges tied together to make a bundle. I didn't open it, but did some exploratory poking. There was obviously a cinder block in there, and the rest was just squishy. After a particularly vigorous poke, blood started seeping through the blanket. I hauled my little a*s back to the boat and never looked back. Decades later, I still think about that and wonder what was in there. On a lighter note, our shop got a lot of business retrieving dropped items and speed boats that idiots would sink. My dad was the shop's master instructor and normally passed these jobs on to me or one of the regulars. However, he took one job in January to test his new dry suit and took along one of his friends. I was their gear-tote, and waited on shore. Dad came up first, and started telling me about this weird looking fishing lure he'd found while sifting through the silt. About that time, the buddy surfaces and asks dad why he was playing with that tampon for so long. I had an awesome childhood.

#15

Image source: Old_Dirty_Badger, BC bubbles I was scuba diving with my family in hawaii. We were pretty deep, im guessing like 25 feet under water, when the lady in front of me kicked out my breathing mouth piece. I had just blown out all of the air in my lungs so im deep under water with no oxygen and not a whole lot of time to react. So i start clawing for the surface frantically. As i was going up i felt this horrible expanding feeling in my chest. It was the scariest moment in my life. One of the instructors popped up a minute or two later and said she didnt expect me to be alive or concious or something like that. I went back to the hotel pretty shaken up and cried a little bit from sheer terror. It was a rough day

#16

Guns... dozens and dozens of guns. Rotten stock and rusted closed, but there are certain spots locally where I can bring up as many as I can carry just about every dive. Source: SupervisorEric

#17

I was knee boarding one time in a lake not too far outside of my home town. The water is very murky and dark. Well the front end of the board dipped downward in to the water but I kept holding on to the rope. I shot probably a good 20+ feet deep in a matter of a couple of second and when I let go I completely lost my place it space. It was pitch black and I couldn't tell if I was right side up or upside down. Didn't really "find" anything scary but being that lost in space is truly terrifying. Started buying more buoyant life jackets from that point forward. Source: Bdag

#18

Image source: Fnuzilla, Richard Ling This happened when I was doing my 2nd dive on the entry level course to a scuba diving organization (I can't recall the name). So we're about to descend to the ocean floor to do some basic exercises (e.g. letting water into your mask and getting it out again). My friend, let's call him Daniel, was the first diver that descended all the way with the instructor, but when his flippers touched the ground there was a hidden wobbegong shark. He hit it, and it RUSHED towards and bit Daniel in the thigh. Daniel was scared and ascended WAY to quickly (ascending to quickly without proper "form" can kill you). He was scared shitless, and so was I as I was right next to him. I grabbed his calf and tried to push him down and he kinda realized what he was doing. At the moment I was scared, but 10 minutes later on the boat we nicknamed him "The Shark Tamer" - everything really does want to kill you in Australia huh.

#19

Image source: Ursus_Crap South Floridian, here. I grew up fishing and diving, which has led to a few notable stories. The one that sticks out the most was during my high school years. I had just taken a deep breath and gone down to a reef about thirty or so below. My friend was still on the boat above and we were the only ones on the reef. I got down to the bottom and noticed a thin upright pole. Upon closer inspection it was indeed a normal fishing pole, but old and rotten under the water for so long. Right as I was going to grab the pole it was pulled from my hands, just shooting up and away, as if being reeled in by the other side. It was gone within a matter of seconds, so i started my resurface expecting to see another boat responsible. No boats, nothing in sight, but of course just my friend and his boat. I never bothered telling him, because he would have never believed me anyway. The only explanation I might have is that the pole was still attached to a fish or something, although I doubt it. Still gives me goose bumps thinking about it.

#20

Surfer here. Grew up in Southern California now live and surf on the east coast. In the outer banks area of North Carolina, there are tons of sharks which are usually not aggressive so I have no problem surfing around black tip sharks and such. Was out on the water for a sunrise surf session when a fifteen foot manta ray literally jumped over me. His (her?) wing slapped me on the back and knocked me into the water and all I could think of was how Steve Erwin died and I literally crapped myself. Source: Lawsonstruck

#21

Image source: keithbah, Elgin Renz Rocili Rescue diver in the Bahamas... [I was] diving in a submerged blue hole (the entrance is below sea level) and a diver went missing. After an hour or two of searching, went back into the blue hole to see if there were any signs of him. Saw the glint of his watch and his arm sticking out near the bottom. Start descending down to the bottom to recover the body. On the way down realized that the "bottom" was a school of sharks that must have been there for breeding. So many sharks that they blocked the view of the actual bottom. Descended into the darkness, grabbed his arm (couldn't stand to look at the body) and started ascending. The sharks followed. And were circling the both of us. Had to take a break halfway at around 65 feet as to not get the bends. Scared sh*tless. The entire time waiting to normalize scared sh*tless. He was struck by a passing boat.

#22

Image source: ArsenalOwl, Tina Nord Well I definitely *don't* love water, but here's mine: Was down by the beach, was around thirteen. My brothers and I went down there to play a lot around then. There's a seagull, they're pretty common around there, flies down to the water to grab a tasty fish. Well, it must have misjudged the size, because whatever it was grabbed the seagull and dragged it under water. Dunno what it was, but I didn't want to play in the same water as it.

#23

Image source: 2ndcircle, Tom Pottiger Bodies. One summer at my cousin's lake house, my cousins and I were out swimming and at one point my sister started screaming bloody murder. All the adults jumped into the lake to drag her out. Turns out she had just had seaweed wrap around her leg. What our parents hadn't told us was that a man had drowned in the lake and his body hadn't been recovered yet. He washed up on our shore the next day. Still a little scared to swim in that lake.

#24

Image source: SupervisorEric, MATSUDA Akihiro I did find a bag full of cat bones once... we were pretty perplexed about it. We brought it up and found a cross and rocks in the bag. I'm assuming (hoping) it was a burial of a loved family pet and not the alternative.

#25

My grandpa was in the Royal Australian Navy during the Vietnam War. They were taught to shake the hand of dead sailors when recovering the bodies to make them more comfortable and familiar with handling a dead body. On my grandpa's first recovery dive, he shook the hand of a dead sailor and the arm came off the body. Had to keep his cool and bring the body up, but still pretty messed up. Source: 0ntoast

#26

Image source: Travesura, Jess Loiterton I swam out into the middle of a lake in northern Wisconsin on a warm summer day. I was floating on my back, just relaxing. After a bit, I started thinking about how deep the water was, and then about a horror movie I had recently seen that featured a giant monster bursting up through the water in a lake not unlike the one that i was floating in. I started to feel kind of nervous. Suddenly, I heard the most god-awful roar as if the lake was exploding beneath me. Terrified, I bolted up to tread water only to see the trailing smoke from a SAC fighter jet that was practicing flying under radar.

#27

I was snorkeling in the Bahamas when I came across a barracuda that was at least 2 metres long. Eerie looking creature, just sat there with its teeth poking all grumpy looking. Turns out after speaking to the locals, this particulate barracuda is called Henry and these waters have been his territory for years. Source: goldengluvs

#28

Image source: tsim12345, Big Cypress National Preserve I don't know if this counts but I'm a water lover, so maybe so. While water skiing in the lake one time (Louisiana) when I flew off I landed like pretty much on top of an alligator. I kinda felt my leg hit him and we were like eye to eye when I gasped for air. Then he went under. The moments after that were the most terrifying moments of my life because I was so certain Id feel him bite my foot any second and drag me under. I started screaming and couldn't stop until the boat was back to me. You don't realize how long 2-3 minutes is until you're alone in the open water. Never again for me.

#29

Image source: SeasDiver, Vlad Patana On one of my night dives at the Flower Garden Banks Marine Sanctuary in either 2005 or 2006, had my first encounter with a Beaded Sea Cucumber. I thought I stepped out of the real world and into a science fiction/fantasy world seeing this long worm with tentacles surrounding it's mouth like a cross between a snake and an octopus. Very scary initially, now I look for them because they are pretty cool. On a more recent dive (this spring), although I knew I was going to see it (the whole purpose of the dive after all), finding the 3 year old 80 lb golden lab that had been swept away in the spring floods and trapped in debris under a bridge scared the heck out of me when I first found her body visually. Knowing you are looking for it, and actually finding it are two different things. But at least I was able to bring her body home for her family.

#30

It was my first deep wreck dive, and I was venturing in the hold of a sunken fishing trawler. At the bottom of the dark hold, I found a full size skeleton. My wife and dive buddy freaked out, and swam straight into the wall. She dropped her dive light, which settled 20 feet below between the skeleton's legs. I dove down alone to get it, because SCUBA gear is expensive. Up close, that skeleton was an obvious plant. Source: quit_yer_whinin