Let’s not be all big and brave about it, the dark depths of the sea are an eerie place. I mean, we haven’t even explored most of the ocean – that can lead you to imagine all kinds of things into existence.
You might not even have a fear of sea animals or thalassophobia, but you still have to admit it can get creepier the more you think about it.
There are all sorts of sharks and creatures swimming around down there, some of who have been for centuries. And people have been left terrified of the deep sea after seeing chilling footage of one of the huge 400-year-old creatures.
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A video shared by Natural World Facts on YouTube shows off the absolute whopper that is the Greenland shark.
The species is quite widely unknown, said to swim mysteriously in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic seas. They’re said to be found in waters often at depths of 2,000 metres in the ‘midnight zone’ of the ocean.
Greenland sharks also have an impressive possibility of growing up to a massive 23-feet in length and 1.2 tonnes weight.
But what’s far more impressive (and maybe a little bit scarier) than their size is their ‘immortal’ capabilities.
Scientists estimate that the Greenland shark can live for at least 250 years and may even make it past 500.
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One study previously examined sharks that were a bycatch in a fishermen’s net, with the largest one, a five-metre female, estimated to be between 272 and 512 years old.
Despite looking rather creepy in footage, they’re not really one for us humans to be losing sleep over as there is said to be no cases of attacks on our species and that the sharks are ‘primarily scavengers’.
Plus, as the sharks age, they lose their vision and become nearly blind – so they’d have to rely on their other senses to seek you out.
Although, down in the deep dark waters of the icy ocean, they don’t exactly need to be able to see anyway.
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And some users admitted they’re not so terrifying after all: “I'm used to thinking of creatures like the Greenland shark as frightening, but ironically, the gentility within these sharks shines through, and so I consider them among the most beautiful animals in the world.”
“Creepy but cool,” another wrote, as one said: “For me this is one of the scariest animals on this planet.”
Topics: Animals, Environment, Sharks, YouTube, Ocean
Jess Battison