Scientists Are Baffled After Underwater Observatory Suddenly Disappeared

There are plenty of movies out there that delve into the murky and mysterious depths of the ocean.

Usually, they'll play on the Hollywood trope of something lurking far beneath the surface: an ancient creature that has been dormant...until now. It usually starts with equipment randomly going offline and divers are sent in to see what went wrong.

Well we could have a very real version of this, without the ancient creature (for now).

Scientists have been baffled ever since an underwater observatory mysteriously and suddenly disappeared without a trace.

The Boknis Eck Observatory, which has been planted on the ocean floor in a bay off Germany's coast, has been providing vital data about the Baltic Sea.

It was doing its thing when, all of a sudden, the data just stopped coming through.

Divers were sent in to see why the observatory was not working. As they got to the bottom of the bay, all they could see was a severed cable that used to be attached to the data machine. *dramatic music begins*

Police have been called in to investigate whether humans were at play to move the 1,500 pound device...but we're all thinking it was probably aliens or megalodon, the gigantic shark.

Image result for megalodon gif

Boknis Eck coordinator Hermann Bange from GEOMAR said in a statement: "At first, we tried to find the devices with our own research and other diving applications. So far without success.

"That's why we would be very happy about the hints. Maybe someone saw something on the morning of 21 August at the Sperrgebiet 'Hausgarten' near the Hökholz campsite. Or someone finds parts of the frames somewhere on the beach.

"The data that we collect is downright priceless. They help research to register changes in the Baltic Sea and possibly take countermeasures. Therefore, we will try to get the observatory back up and running as soon as possible."

Investigators say because of how heavy the devices are, they've ruled out extremely massive storms, currents or marine animals as the culprits.

That's just what they want us to think rather than freak out a huge sea creature is going around ruining science.

Researchers have been testing the temperature, salinity, nutrients, oxygen or chlorophyll in the area since 1957, making it 'one of the oldest, still active marine science time series worldwide'.

So no doubt they're desperate to have their instruments back or at least find out what happened to it.