I've been feeling kind of spooky with Halloween fast approaching, and there's nothing scarier than the real-life mysteries and terrors that live in our oceans, not to mention those creepy creatures that sometimes make their way out of the deep sea and onto our shores.
Whether it's living breathing animals that are straight out of a nightmare, or questionable findings from eons ago that baffle scientists, our oceans are full of secrets and mysteries we can't even begin to imagine.
Here's a list of just a few skin-crawling aquatic discoveries, namely the creepiest deep sea creatures and findings explorers have uncovered, juxtaposed against some of the most bizarre and confronting things to ever wash up on our beaches.
From a giant eyeball that leaves us confused, to aptly-named goblin sharks, vampire squids and what is literally referred to as the 'Montauk Monster', this list is sure to make us never want to set foot near the ocean again.
20 Goblin Shark (Deep Sea)
The kind of creepy I cannot handle is the Goblin Shark. One look at this guy and I know to stay away. But as for deep sea divers, it's their job to get a little closer.
Goblin sharks live in some of the deepest and darkest parts of the ocean. That alone is scary enough. But in 2014, while a group of divers meant to observe the shark and collect video, one of the explorers was attacked. Luckily, at such depths, wetsuits are thick, and the diver was protected. The shark also made it out unharmed, as soon as he released the diver's arm and swam off. Yikes!
19 Human feet (Washed up)
Safe and polite Canada has been host to more than a dozen severed feet that inexplicably washed up on the shores of British Columbia.
There's even a map of where all the feet turned up across BC and Seattle, as well as a Wikipedia page tracking all the feet collected, called Salish Sea human foot discoveries. To date, there have been 14 feet washed up in BC and 5 along the shores of Seattle.
But why?
While we don't know why the feet are showing up on their own, what we do know is that the sneakers (that contain the severed feet) float, and with the currents inevitably make their way to shore. Officials say there is no lunatic responsible, it's simply the remains of drownings that occurred in the area. It seems like, as creepy as it is to find the remains of a foot on the beach, these feet won't stop showing up any time soon.
18 Vampire Squid (Deep Sea)
The scariest thing about the vampire squid is...well, that should be pretty obvious. The thing looks confronting, as if a squid and an umbrella had a baby and it came out very very wrong.
I'm sure the first deep-sea explorer to discover the vampire squid gave it the name to match it's menacing look, but in actuality, the vampire squid is pretty tame, and it definitely won't suck your blood or turn into a bat.
The reason this guy looks so scary is that these types of squid are able to reverse their skin and show their spiked spine whenever they feel threatened. That alone helps them live up to their name!
17 A giant squid (Washed up)
No list of washed up creatures and mysteries would be complete without the inclusion of a giant squid. It's about the coolest and scariest thing you can see along the beach, right up there with unidentified globsters. But don't be alarmed, the image above is not a real giant squid!
Back in 2014, an image of a 160-foot long squid appeared to have washed up on the shores of California, however, the story was a fake (you can't trust the internet, people). No giant squid that large has ever washed up on shore, but a giant squid really has washed up, it was just far less impressive in size.
About twice the length of your average person, the giant squid that washed up on shore in New Zealand was no joke.
16 Underwater statues (Deep Sea)
These statues were pretty much designed to freak you out. Artist Jason deCaires Taylor erected 500 human statues in Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc, in Mexico as an art exhibit. Far from a spooky natural phenomenon, this art installation represents the relationship between art and environment.
It's not uncommon for man-made phenomena to become reef sites. Many sunken ships and accidents evolve to become hosts for dozens of fish and plant species. The same can be said for these underwater statues. All the statues use materials that promote coral life, and with each year that passes these "people" will look less and less human and more and more marine-like.
15 Giant Eyeball (Washed up)
This is definitely something that would keep me up all night. We know the ocean is filled with enormous animals, but when one giant eyeball, isolated from the rest of its body, floats up on Florida’s Pompano Beach, you're going to be freaked out.
Scientists haven't been able to pinpoint which species lost the eyeball. It could be a giant squid, a swordfish, a shark or something even worse! If an animal this big could be reduced to an eyeball, what chance do I have?!
14 Frilled Shark - more like snake shark! (Deep Sea)
While his name might sound cute, he's not! Another creepy discovery deep sea divers have made is the frilled shark. This species of shark is the nightmarish hybrid of snake and shark.
The creature has 25 rows of teeth, but it attacks its prey more like a snake, by coiling up then lunching at them and swallowing them whole. All those 300 teeth are used just to trap the animal and make it impossible for prey to leave after he locks his jaw around them.
While they live 50-200 meters deep, swimmers have nothing to fear, but divers would never want to cross one!
13 Bombs Away! (Washed up)
Some of the ocean's many dangers, albeit not so natural, are the leftover bombs and mines from the second world war that litter seabeds all over the world. Every now and then, an undetonated bomb or mine will make its way to shore.
A bomb was found on a Florida beach, others found across UK beaches. Worst of all, without knowing what they are, children have played with them, taken photos with them, and been none the wiser at what could have happened.
In Florida, for example, the bomb looked much like a log at first, because it was so heavily barnacle covered. Luckily the lady who discovered it called in authorities, and specialist soon secured the perimeter and detonated the bomb safely.
In Hampshire, more than 100 have made their way to shore over time, and those were carried away and blown up far from residents and beachgoers.
12 Giant Isopods, aka Big Bugs (Deep Sea)
I try not to think about what lives in the deep sea when I dip my feet in the salty water. (I also try not to think about how much whale pee I'm drinking when the water accidentally makes its way into my mouth.) Giant Isopods are one of those species that give me the heebie-jeebies.
They look like giant ocean bugs, growing up to two and a half feet long, but they're not related to bugs at all. They live at the bottom of the ocean and eat other deep sea creatures that have already died, so they're pretty harmless as far as deep sea critters go.
11 Tons of tombstones (Washed up)
There's nothing like tripping over a solid slab of stone with someone's birth and death date on it while strolling down the beach.
In 2012, beachgoers came across the tombstone of a 20 year old named Emma Bosworth, who passed away in 1876. It was definitely the strangest thing that ever made its way to the shores of Ocean Beach in San Fransisco. Until soon after another tombstone turned up, this time for Delia Presby who passed in 1890.
More and more tombstones washed up, and it turns out, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the bodies in San Francisco cemeteries were moved and the tombstones repurposed to build a sea wall.
A creepy story with a rational explanation. Just the kind of creepy I can handle!
10 The Infamous BlobFish (Deep Sea)
Some people might actually find this little guy cute. Since the blobfish's discovery in 2003, when he was collected off the coast of New Zealand and photographed by Kerryn Parkinson, people have even turned the little guy into a stuffed animal for kids or quirky adult collectors.
Fun fact: the blobfish actually looks like a regular fish in the deep sea, but it bloats with lower pressure in shallower water, where he was first found. Only the deep sea divers know what the fish regularly looks like.
9 Starfish Armageddon (Washed up)
Seeing a lifeless animal usually gives me pause. What happened? Did the animal struggle? Could it have been prevented? Now imagine heading out to the beach to enjoy the day when you come across tens of thousands of starfish. That will stop you immediately in your tracks.
That's exactly what happened on a beach in Kent, a city in South East England. The entire beach was covered in tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of starfish. It happened because cold weather from the east collided with massive wind storm Emma that affected parts of Great Britain in 2018, bringing temperatures below freezing.
The starfish were one of the species that couldn't survive the storm in that area, and as a result the beach was covered in starfish corpses. Specialists had never seen anything like it before!
8 Barreleye Fish, the sad sea aliens (Deep Sea)
Of all the creepy crawlers and anomalies on this list, the barreleye fish is probably the coolest because he doesn't terrify me at all. I actually want to give him a little hug to help him turn that frown upside down.
We all know that creatures look a little different in the deep sea because they're so far away from warmth and sunlight. Well, this little guy has his whole head and brain exposed thanks to his translucent skin. Deep-sea divers discovered that the barrel fish can move his eyes to see out the back of his head, and he swallows up his food whole.
7 A mystery "Globster" (Washed up)
A "globster" is the name attributed to an unidentified animal that washes up on shore. In this case, a massive sea creature with what looked like white hair washed up on a beach in the Philippines and scientists were completely baffled. It was the size of a whale, easily, but it didn't look like any whale they'd seen.
Experts speculate that the six-meter long corpse may have been the swollen body of a sea cow or the body of a whale, and the “hairs” covering the washed-up body were presumed to be muscle fibres. But imagine walking along the beach and coming across this beast! I'd be completely mortified.
6 The Unsolved Baltic Sea Anomaly (Deep Sea)
I'll say what we're all thinking...aliens! Obviously! If the Montauk Monster had people thinking about aliens, this unidentified sunken object definitely screams former UFO to me!
In 2014, a grainy image of something deep at the bottom of the ocean looked to some like the outline of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.
People were convinced cool movie star aliens had come to earth and crash-landed in the sea, or something of the sort. If you ask the specialists, you'll hear that the Baltic Sea Anomaly is likely just a rock formation of sorts, but what has experts baffled is that they haven't been able to identify it for certain despite their best efforts.
5 The Montauk Monster (Washed up)
Yet another unsolved mystery concerning animals and objects washed ashore is the Montauk Monster. In 2008, beachgoers came across this odd animal carcass. People, including several experts, were unable to identify the animal at first. If you look at the back, it's clearly a roasted chicken (if you ignore the rat tail). If you look at the face, it's clearly a demon from hell. But what do I know?
It turns out the animal is most probably a waterlogged, hairless, burnt raccoon. Poor guy.
But photos of the monster circulated, and some people were unconvinced this guy was really a raccoon. The Montauk Monster was even featured on an episode of Ancient Aliens.
4 Ancient Greek Computer?! (Deep Sea)
Talking about weird and mysterious things found in the ocean brings us to one of our more fascinating discoveries. The remains of an ancient Greek "computer" were found deep underwater after more than two thousand years.
Off the coast of the Greek island, Antikythera, a ship was wrecked that once carried this advanced astronomical device, used to predict eclipses and other celestial events. The mechanism rusted after so many years, but in 1902, when Greek politician, Spirydon Stais, organized an excavation of the wreck, the rusty computer piece stuck out to him.
Today this discovery is called the Antikythera Mechanism, and “nothing as sophisticated, or even close, appears again for more than a thousand years,” explained a Smithsonian expert.
3 A Giant Lego Man (Washed up)
It's not uncommon for really weird things to make their way to shore, but giant angry-faced Lego men jump to the top of my "what-the-heck" list.
The 8 foot tall Lego men started popping up on beaches around the world, from Florida to the UK to Japan. It turns out, the Lego men aren't so much washed ashore as they are planted there, by Dutch guerrilla artist, Ego Leonard. Guerrilla art is when an artist leaves anonymous art in public places, without an explanation. That's exactly what the Lego man sculptures do, they make people questions what's going on. But somehow the artist's statement seems to be lost in translation, and we're still wondering what that was all about.
2 A Neolithic Village (Deep Sea)
This may look like just a few boulders and rocks, but it's actually the remains of a Neolithic city. For those that need a refresher on their ancient history, the Neolithic Age is an era spanning roughly ten thousand years that ended around 2000BC. That makes these simple stones more than 5000 years old!
While the rocks themselves may not be spooky, and the deep sea divers who first came across them likely felt ecstatic rather than afraid, these stones just go to show how easily society can be swept up, washed away and nearly erased from history.
1 Thousands of snowballs (Washed up)
What could be so scary or mysterious about snowballs? Well, when you have tens of thousands of perfectly round snowballs turn up on a beach in Russia, a few eyebrows will be raised.
In this case, there was a freak weather phenomenon where ice formed in the sea and was blown until the shore where it had snowballed up to one meter in diameter in some cases.
Of all the things that have washed ashore, the snowballs scare me just as much if not more than the animals. What do tens of thousands of lifeless starfish have to do with tens of thousands of snowballs on the beach? The answer is climate change, and these massive snowballs in Russia could just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to strange environmental happenings around the world. And if that doesn't send shivers down your spine I don't know what will.