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00:00 Welcome to our planet's greatest source of mystery. Simply put, there's nowhere on Earth
00:05 we know less about than the deep sea. While humankind has scaled mountains, tamed jungles,
00:10 roamed deserts, and travelled the skies, we're still very unfamiliar with the ocean. Over the
00:16 years, there have been some attempts to better our understanding. And, in recent times especially,
00:21 the importance of the ocean has finally been realised. But, still, there are some huge and
00:26 glaring gaps that remain in our knowledge. And it's in these darkest of areas that some rather
00:32 unconventional ideas have come to the fore. This is Unveiled, and today we're taking a closer look
00:38 at some incredible conspiracy theories about the deep sea. Do you need the big questions answered?
00:44 Are you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one? And ring
00:49 the bell for more thought-provoking content! Even to modern minds, the ocean represents
00:55 an uncharted abyss. By some measures, we know far more about space and the universe away from Earth
01:01 than we do about the waters of home. We've extensively mapped the surface of Mars, but
01:06 we're only just beginning to similarly map the ocean floor. We've landed rovers on far-off moons
01:12 and asteroids, but we're only now starting to steer comparable machines through the sea. Yes,
01:17 the likes of Jacques Cousteau, the pioneering oceanographer of the twentieth century, have
01:22 managed to chisel their names into the annals of history. But Cousteau is an outlier, an exception.
01:28 And while our astronauts have been understandably lauded in the past, our aquanauts have generally
01:33 gone unnoticed. It's perhaps not immediately clear exactly why that would be, but what is clear is
01:39 that the hazy history of ocean exploration - the rareness of reliable accounts about what life is
01:45 like below the waves - has led to the growth of a whole subsection of conspiracy theory.
01:50 Here, we're diving right into the best of them, from the mildly mysterious to the downright bizarre.
01:56 First up, and probably the most infamous alternate theory about what might be happening at the bottom
02:01 of the sea, there are multiple claims of "hidden civilisations" lost to the deep. In general,
02:06 it's said that hiding beneath the waves there's proof of ancient, until now unconfirmed, societies.
02:12 Some theorists propose that advanced groups once thrived in the deep sea itself, leaving behind
02:18 submerged cities and structures - the evidence of which is now deliberately concealed by governments
02:23 and powerful organizations. Elsewhere, others claim that early civilisations that were once
02:29 "on land" became submerged by the sea following some kind of huge natural disaster. Of course,
02:35 the most well-known example of this is Atlantis - a legend dating back to at least the writings
02:40 of the Greek philosopher Plato, in which it's said that the overproud Atlanteans were punished
02:44 by the gods for their arrogance - that punishment being that their city was lost forever to a one-off
02:50 monster wave. In general, supporters of the lost civilisations theory point to seeming anomalies
02:56 discovered on the ocean floor, such as geometric rock formations and peculiar-looking structures.
03:01 In the case of Atlantis, it's widely held that if it did exist - which is a pretty big if - then
03:07 it's most likely tied to the Mediterranean islands of Santorini and the fall of the Minoan Empire.
03:13 Although, the Minoans actually disappeared thousands of years after the earliest claims
03:17 of Atlantis date back to. Elsewhere, however, and sites such as the Yanaguni Monument,
03:23 lying between southern Japan and eastern Taiwan, have piqued interest. There are many such places,
03:28 even across the small percentage of the ocean that we have explored, filled with sharp,
03:33 seemingly artificial rock features that some have interpreted as the remainder of once-thriving
03:38 cities. However, scientists counter most claims by explaining that these are more likely natural
03:44 formations, and the result of long-standing geological processes, no matter how human-made
03:49 they may appear to be. Next, and if there aren't - or weren't - people down there, then surely
03:55 there are monsters. The deep sea has long been a setting for all manner of ghost stories and tales
04:01 of inexplicably terrible creatures. Here, most theories are rooted in ancient maritime legends,
04:07 wherein intrepid sailors apparently come face-to-face with colossal, undiscovered beasts.
04:13 The highest profile of these unknown animals is the Kraken, an octopus-like creature reported
04:18 multiple times over the last few hundred years, in Scandinavia and along the coast of Norway in
04:24 particular. Elsewhere, and other mythologies, give us the Leviathan, a huge, sprawling, and deadly
04:30 sea serpent, often explained as a visualisation of the Christian sin of envy. In Old Norse,
04:36 there's Jormungandr, another serpent, this time larger than even the Earth itself. In Greek myth,
04:42 there's Charybdis, a grotesque, dinosaur-ish something that was said to conjure deadly
04:48 whirlpools. Advocates for the real-life existence of sea monsters often point to mysterious deep
04:54 sea sounds picked up by hydrophones, as well as unexplained disappearances of ships and submarines.
05:00 Could these kinds of mysteries serve as proof of the beasts below? Perhaps, but while these
05:05 phenomena can be puzzling, most marine biologists and oceanographers argue that many of the purported
05:11 hints towards there being genuine monsters out there can more simply be explained as
05:16 misinterpretations of known marine animals, including of the fabled giant squid. Or else,
05:22 the stories can be put down to the vivid, and often over-exhausted, imaginations of sailors
05:27 in the past. Finally, however, and it's not too great a jump from monsters to aliens and underwater
05:33 UFO bases. It's around a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and UFOs are big news
05:39 nowadays… although the US Navy has before indicated that what they're more concerned by
05:44 are actually USOs - Unidentified Submerged Objects. Now, in many cases, USOs are most likely to be
05:53 things like whales or other large animals, or even unusual tidal surges. That can then cause problems
05:59 for ships trying to navigate. But, in some cases, USOs are seemingly wholly unexplained… and some
06:06 conspiracies abound that that's because they're otherworldly. In general, proponents argue that
06:12 the deep sea provides the perfect hiding place for alien visitors, far away from prying eyes.
06:17 And, given again how little we've explored down there, it's not as though it would be difficult
06:21 to go unnoticed. Once more, most claims are grounded in seeming peculiarities, such as
06:27 unexplained sonar anomalies. In some cases, however, there are reported first-hand accounts
06:33 of underwater alien encounters. The most famous actually took place not in the sea, but in the
06:38 world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, in 1982, when it's said that seven Soviet divers encountered
06:45 six underwater aliens. In the skirmish that followed, it's even claimed that three of the
06:49 divers lost their lives. Elsewhere, and another seeming hotspot for USO activity, is the Solomon
06:56 Islands in the southwestern Pacific, and especially on the island of Guadalcanal.
07:00 In history, Guadalcanal was the site of a major battle in World War Two, and is therefore
07:06 surrounded by known and suspected shipwrecks and remnants of the conflict. However, in more recent
07:11 times, it has also come to be known for UFO sightings, with most of the claimed "orb-like
07:16 somethings" that are spotted reportedly rising out of the ocean amidst bright lights, and a sudden
07:22 spike in temperature for anyone who gets too close. What's weird, though, is it's not as though the
07:27 Guadalcanal orbs are out on their own. We've seen more and more reports of UFOs in and around the
07:33 ocean in recent times. In 2014, news broke of a reported alien base discovered off the coast of
07:39 Malibu, California, complete with a massive, overhanging roof and several supporting columns.
07:45 In May 2021, headlines were made when the prominent ufologist Jeremy Corbell published
07:51 reportedly leaked US Navy footage of another unknown orb, this time dropping into the sea
07:57 after a period hovering above the waves. In July 2020, the Guardian newspaper ran a story about a
08:03 small group of UFO spotters in Mexico who wholeheartedly believed that their local towns
08:08 were being protected from storm surges off the ocean by an interdimensional, extraterrestrial
08:13 presence on an isolated island a short distance from the coast. These types of stories crop up
08:19 time and time again all over the world map, and while many are quick to downplay their significance,
08:24 the USO story has simply grown and grown and grown in modern times. But what do you think
08:31 about USOs, but also about supposedly ancient civilizations lost to the sea,
08:37 and apparently monstrous creatures that could be hiding in the depths at this very moment?
08:42 As is often the case, it's important to approach such speculative claims and theories with a
08:47 healthy dose of skepticism. In all cases, these ideas still lack empirical, undeniable proof.
08:54 But nevertheless, those are some of the most bizarre, incredible, and compelling conspiracy
09:00 theories about the deep sea. What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the
09:06 comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe and ring
09:10 the bell for our latest content.