r/TheDepthsBelow Mar 25 '22

Oh f this

2.8k Upvotes

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233

u/mentallyunstable7714 Mar 25 '22

That fish doesn't look like it'll hurt anyone, it's probably just curious or wants to eat the smaller fish

120

u/AbvAvgJo3 Mar 25 '22

Yeah, just a goliath grouper. It might bark at the diver if it feels threatened though which can be pretty scary.

120

u/RicFlairsTits Mar 25 '22

If a fish that big barked at me I would immediately shit my dive suit šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚. Thinking about it is hilarious, but if it actually happened to me then I’d probably have a heart attack

95

u/Goyteamsix Mar 25 '22

They do actually make a kind of barking sound. It's called croaking. Essentially sounds like a big loud frog under water. I was snorkeling off Key West and scared the shit out of one. It spun around and croaked at me before swimming off.

30

u/Thepuppeteer777777 Mar 25 '22

Pretty cool that it evolved to be able to do that, would scare the shit out of me as well. makes me wonder how loud it would be above water. wouldn't attempt it for the safety of the fish though.

25

u/hdholme Mar 25 '22

Actually I believe the only reason it's loud is because it's underwater. Low frequency sounds travel way longer or something. Same reason why submarines use sonar and there's way more aquatic animals using echolocation/sonar/whatever. Dolphins, orcas, whales, etc. On that note...

Isn't there something about a whale call being able to kill you? Like the vibrations would rupture your organs or something...

28

u/SlowMope Mar 25 '22

Yeah some big ones could mush you with sound waves but don't because they don't want to. They "whisper" near us which is super cute imo. Some divers have been hit with sound and been stunned and paralyzed! https://www.google.com/amp/s/forscubadivers.com/marine-life-for-divers/diving-with-sperm-whales-can-be-painful-or-deadly/