Oh, Mariana

It's moment's like this that make me wonder why science fiction populates other planets with life - when we have our own undiscovered world right here.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans - that we know of. If you were at the bottom of this trench, you would be further from sea level than if you were at cruising altitude on an international flight.

That tiny, tiny black dot on the surface? A person. Below, a blue whale. Click to get a better view.

Just imagine what's waiting at the bottom of all that blackness.

I love it when mythology comes to life. The oarfish, thought to be the inspiration for millennia old stories of sea serpents and dragons, has been filmed by scientists in the Gulf of Mexico.

This king of herrings, as it's known, is an amazing fish. Rarely seen, or caught, it's the longest fish in the sea at a confirmed 11 metres. They think it probably gets as long as 15 metres. That's 50 feet, people. I would not be messing with this herring. It's also got some pretty fancy headgear.

It's easy to see why people wrote stories about this guy. Check out the vid below:

And read about a "woman angler" catching one of these bad boys here.

I may have a bit of a reputation amongst friends and loved ones. Somehow, I have become known for a love of sea creatures, and subsequently every second message on facey, twitter, or phone is somehow ocean related. I am, apparently, "that chick obsessed with the sea". Or maybe, "that girl who watched the Little Mermaid way too many times as a child" (is that even possible?) and hopefully not "that one who still tries to swim like ocean girl when she's pretty sure no one's looking".

Not that I mind - on the contrary, it pretty much makes my day every time someone discovers a new species of squid. And I've dipped my toe in the water (so to speak) of undersea blogging at I Know My Goat. It was that post that lead to this, I think. After I was done I couldn't stop thinking of things I'd left off - the Immortal Jellyfish for example, or the fantastic underwater photography of Bruce Mozert.

So here we are. With a blog title taken from a wonderful Ted Hughes poem that doesn't have anything much to do with the sea. And I think Bruce Mozert is a great place to start - his 1938 photos are joyful and surreal.

Photos from Silver Springs: The Underwater Photography of Bruce Mozert by Gary Monroe. Buy it here.