Why Are We STILL So Terrified Of The Ocean?

Why Are We STILL So Terrified Of The Ocean?


The ocean covers more than 70% of Earth’s surface, containing 97% of our entire planet's water supply… but they’re still, famously and quite bizarrely mostly unexplored. It’s commonly said that we know more about space than we do about the ocean, and by many metrics that actually isn’t hyperbole. What’s worse is, while we’ve only had the technology to explore space for a few decades, we’ve been travelling the seas for thousands of years. So, why have we seemingly learnt so little in so much time?


This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; why are we still so terrified of the ocean?


Life on Earth was born from the sea, with the leading theories suggesting that it originated along (and around) ancient, deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The first cells and complex life forms took shape here, almost four billion years ago, and for millions of years afterward that was the status quo. Eventually, life evolved far enough to leave the water, to walk on land, and much, much later on, the first modern humans arrived.


It’s a tale as old as time in a more literal sense than most, but the long and the short of it is that our wholly sea-based ancestors - those primordial, microscopic life forms of the past - are extremely, laughably distant from us, as we are today. So much so that, while life may have been born from the sea, early humans were, if anything, scared of it. A swirling mass of cold, stretching on for as far as the eye can see, an icy, shivering bulk of near-certain death; the ocean was (and, really, still is) a pretty ominous place.


Nevertheless, the land-loving human did eventually turn its attention to taming the sea. The consensus is somewhat divided over exactly when, but our species learned to sail roughly 50,000 years ago, at least. The first key (and busy) trade routes date back to around 1,000 BCE. In more recent times, travelling by boat is a norm, and the only reason we don’t do it more is due to the advent of flight. But, in the grand scheme of our species lifetime, journeying across oceans has not been the norm. There has been a disconnect. And this is perhaps part of the problem.


Obviously, humans are at a physical disadvantage when we’re in the water. On land, we can run, climb, easily use a variety of tools, and we can defend ourselves relatively simply, if the need arises. In the ocean, we’re slow, awkward, and vulnerable. We can’t see beneath the waves, all of our senses dull. We can swim, yes, but only for a limited time, and it’s not always enough to resist the tides, nor to outswim most ocean creatures. From an evolutionary perspective, it has therefore always made sense to stay close to land, and to be cautious when in (or around) the sea. The ocean represents the unknown, and humans are inherently afraid of it. It could even be argued that avoiding the sea is a survival mechanism.


Thalassophobia is the irrational fear of deep water. It’s a phobia that is little understood, with conflicting views that it could be linked to the sufferer enduring some kind of related trauma in their past, it could be linked to a person’s upbringing (as is often the case with irrational fears, in general), or thalassophobia could be genetic - so, fear of the ocean might be inherited. Whatever the reason, the media unapologetically plays on this apparently inescapable trope of our character. From “Jaws” to “Sharknado”, from “The Perfect Storm” to “Life of Pi”, there’s an endless stream of movies that rely on the key themes of danger, isolation and helplessness. Even “Finding Nemo” is a hard watch for someone who has thalassophobia.


The hostility of the sea, of course, stretches far beyond the movie theater. Our histories, all over the world, are crammed with cultural myths about sea monsters and lost ships. The horrifying Kraken, a legendary sea monster, is said to be so large it can swallow entire boats, and its body can be reasonably mistaken for an island landmass. “Moby Dick” set the tone for a new age of sea-faring scariness when it was published in 1851. The centuries old stories of explorers and pirates only add to the intrigue, but also to the fear.


But it’s a fear that has always been paired with a desire to know more. The stories of sunken cities are another common topic all across the globe. The most famous of which being that of Atlantis which, according to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, was swallowed up by a monster wave as an act of punishment delivered by the Gods. The Atlanteans are said to have been far too proud and demanding for their own good, and so their once-glistening city was deliberately submerged by the heavens, never to be seen again. Whatever you think of the tale, the recurring theme of “ocean bad” crops up again.


In the modern world, the ocean isn’t only the final resting place of lost, legendary cities. According to UNESCO, there are more than three million shipwrecks littered across the seafloor. There are supposed (and infamous) hotspots, such as within the famed Bermuda triangle, but really there are wrecks all over the map, and especially along the busiest shipping routes. The spectre of a voyage gone wrong is, ultimately, and unfortunately, never too far away. Add into the equation that in the last 100 years or so hundreds of airplanes have also been lost beneath the waves, and the ocean becomes even eerier.


Naturally, all the lost wrecks also highlight the reality that, again, the ocean is hugely underexplored. There are so many lost objects in the sea that remain totally unaccounted for, which further adds to the creepiness and mystery. And modern technology, for all its improvements, has yet to truly help us out. From SONAR to submersibles, we do possess more information now than our ancestors ever did, but actually making use of (and understanding) the scans and images that we do capture… is slow going, so far. It’s a problem created on two fronts; there’s a perceived lack of interest in ocean exploration compared to space travel, and there’s therefore a distinct lack of funding. Notably in America, but across most of the major economic powers, in general.


The unpredictability of the ocean is thrown all the more into the light during every single hurricane season. Huge storms and typhoons gather over our largest expanses, before raining destruction down onto the land; destruction that humans are often powerless to stop. The incredibly dangerous tsunamis that can follow earthquakes in the ocean are yet another periodic, inescapable and brutal display of the unmatched strength of the sea. For those caught out on the sea during a storm, it can be a death sentence. For those nearby when the worst weather makes land, it’s mother nature at her deadliest.


Perhaps the Mariana Trench is the greatest representation of just how intimidating the ocean can feel. At more than 36,000 feet deep at its deepest point, it easily ranks among the least explored environments on Earth. That said, the Trench isn’t totally uncharted territory. Multiple crewed missions have journeyed down into it, capturing images straight out of your very worst thalassophobic nightmares. Such missions are vital expeditions, however. According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not only is around 80% of the ocean unmapped, but 91% of ocean species are unclassified. Again, in terms of life on this planet, the sea is the last great unknown.


The good news is that our species-wide, centuries-old aversion to the water is slowly lifting. The legend of the Kraken doesn’t quite generate the horror that it once did; today’s technology has made sea travel safer than it has ever been before; and, although our emphasis on space travel is a leading reason as to why we haven’t focused more on the ocean… our success in space travel - from the Apollo program to the Space Shuttle missions - has shown that perhaps travelling the depths isn’t quite so impossible as it once may have seemed.


That said, for all the complexity of space travel, our astronauts don’t yet need to cope with anything close to comparable pressure. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, it’s more than 1,000 bars, which is more than 1,000 times the air pressure at sea level. Just plain surviving with the weight of the sea on your shoulders is another unique and daunting challenge. And, after everything else, it’s one more reason why we’re still so terrified of the ocean.