Terrifying reality of deep sea after unexpected visitor spotted 3,000ft underwater in eerie footage
A fear of the unknown is a psychological condition that seems to plague almost every human mind, and this especially applies to the deep sea.
It's bizarre that about 71 per cent of our planet is covered by water, yet we've only mapped out 5 percent of the world's oceans.
What could be looming down there? Atlantis? More terrifying alien-like creatures?
While we'll have to wait for experts to figure all of that out, all we can go off now is footage taken from down there, giving us a snapshot into life in our waters.
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In recently resurfaced footage taken 3,000 feet below the surface, viewers were given a shock as we got a glimpse of what you can expect that far down.
The 53-second clip was originally uploaded to YouTube back in 2006, and the user explained in the description that they were carrying out some underwater operations with an 'ROV', or remotely operated vehicle.
While 'inspecting the flowline jumper', they were greeted by a particular creature - a whale.
You can imagine that the operator of the vehicle probably got a shock, seeing as it floated past the camera, all nonchalant, almost appearing out of thin air.
The grainy footage (technology has really come a long way) makes it even harder to see, but the colossal beast can be seen almost looking at the camera before swimming across.
With over 4.7 million views, it's fair to say that the clip went viral, particularly for 2006's standards.
Users shared what they thought of the whale, as one pointed out: "Considering the creepy things that we can see at such depths, it's kind of comforting to see these familiar gentle giants even that far down."
It could have been a lot worse, but one admitted: "This would've scared the hell outta me, thinking it was some kind of sea monster."
A third said: "The amount of engineering required for us to be down there and this thing just swims by on a held breath," explaining that whales can't actually breathe underwater, making it all the more spectacular.
Others were surprised the video has started recirculating again, as a different user said: "I don’t know why we’re all getting this recommended in our feed after 17 years, but that was dope."
"As someone who loves digging up obscure early pre 2010 vids I’m so happy this one picked up," another admitted.
Whatever the whale's intention was, I think we're in agreement that it was pretty cool to see it breeze past in the archive footage.
Joshua Nair