deep down. designed by Josef Pachmayr
a deep sea magazine
4 fear? 6 real? 8 light? 12 death?
Contents|2
Picture of a Boat leaving the harbour by Jeremy Bishop
Why we fear the deep F
ear of the Ocean is called Thalassophobia and there are different reasons to why it appears. Genetics are probably the biggest factor on why we fear the sea. The ‘Fear of Unknown’ is an evolutionary mechanism that has driven the survival of the human race since the very beginning. Showing fear toward deep bodies of water is in effect justified since ancestors to the human race understood that being in an aquatic environment is more dangerous than staying on land. This in return developed into a fundamental fear passing down from generation to generation in order to ensure the survival of human kind. Experiences people may have had around water can also be a way of learning to fear. Negative Events like being stung by a jellyfish, being sucked into the depth by the currents, an encounter with a seemingly dangerous sea creature, being on a boat in a storm etc. are often the reason for fear. Ultimately upbringing is a huge factor on why we fear the deep as well. If your parents tell you about horrible experiences they made with the sea, you might learn to fear it as well just by the stories they tell you.
Fear?|4
”We all have this fear of darkness because we can’t see and we rely on our vision to protect us. If you shut your eyes and you can’t see, now you have to rely on senses that you don’t normally rely upon.“ -Marc Calin, hypnotist Picture of a persons hand reaching from the water
most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind t of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The tle; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such ein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace osophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and ient it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden aeons which chills me d maddens me when I dream of it. That glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, flashed out from dental piecing together of separated things in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead ssor. I hope that no one else will accomplish this piecing out; certainly, if I live, I shall never knowingly y a link in so hideous a chain. I think that the professor, too, intended to keep silent regarding the part he w, and that he would have destroyed his notes had not sudden death seized him. My knowledge of the thing n in the winter of 1926-27 with the h of my granduncle George Gammell Angell, ssor Emeritus of Semitic Languages in Bro ersity, Providence, Rhode Island. Professor A widely known as an authority on ancient in had frequently been how stories form our perspective on the sea resorted to by the heads eums; so that his passing at the age of nine Myths and Legends called by many. Stories about the deep sea‘s inhabitants are probably as old as mankind Locally, interest was inten urity of the cause itself. In the beginning those stories where told to comprehend the of death. The professor t the Newport sea and to describe what happened to lost ships or during huge boat; falling suddenly, as after having been by a nautica storms. Later, those stories where told by fishermen and sailors jostled o who had come of the q to exaggerate their adventures. Those stories of gigantic Kraken from one ts on the precipitous ripping apart whole ships, mermaids convincing sailors to jump into hillside which form the ocean or sea serpents as big as whales where named Seamen‘s yarn. waterfront to ort cut from the deceased’s home in Williams Street. In literature cians were unable to find any visible Stories being as old as mankind, scripts telling about the seas mysteries der, but concluded after perplexed debate are as old as writing itself. The most famous one is arguably some obscure lesion ”the Odyssey“ by Homer, a Greek writer from around 800 BC. In of the heart, induced by nt of so steep a modern literature the same creatures are being represented and also hill by so elderly a man, w onsible for the end. new creatures were created. H. P. Lovecraft‘s ”The Call of Cthulhu“ At the time I saw no reas nt from this dictum, from 1926 for example features the alien god ” Cthulhu“ that now has but latterly I am inclined a huge impact on new science fiction stories, games and movies about wond of files and boxes der and more than the sea. More realistic stories, based on Seaman‘s yarn like ”Moby Dick“ Much of the material whi uarters in Boston. related will be later by Herman Melville from the 1850s or ”The Old Man And the Sea“ by published by the America aeological Society, Ernest Hemingway from the 1950s are also very popular and well known, but there was one box also among younger readers. h I found exceedingly ling, and which I felt much averse from shewing to other eyes. It had been locked, and I did ind the key till it occurred to me to examine the personal ring which the professor carried ys in his pocket. Then indeed I succeeded in opening it, but when I did so seemed only to onfronted by a greater and more closely locked barrier. For what could be the meaning e queer clay basrelief and the disjointed jottings, ramblings, and cuttings which I d? Had my uncle, in his latter years, become credulous of the most superficial stures? I resolved to search out the eccentric sculptor responsible for h rectangle less than an inch thick and about five by six inches in area; ainly to be; though my memory, despite much familiarity with the papers ven to hint at its remotest affiliations. Above these apparent hieroglyphics w de a very clear idea of its nature. It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symb eive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an oc pirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with ru e it most shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a Cyclopea a stack of press cuttings, in Professor Angell’s most recent hand; and made no pret
Are they real?
to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position and safety of a new dark age. human race form when
, own Angell nscriptions, s of prominent netytwo may nsified by the had been stricken witnesses al-looking queer dark med
Real?|6 I think of an
”Yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature [...] A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings.“ HPL: The Call of Cthulhu
the brisk was son to to to ich an
this apparent disturbance of an old man’s peace of mind. The bas-relief was a obviously of modern origin. Its designs, however, were regularity which seemed and collections of my uncle, failed in any way to identify this particular species, was a figure of evidently pictorial intent, though its impressionistic execution bol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could ctopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole an architectural background. The writing accompanying tence to literary style. What seemed to be
Picure of an Octopus by Qijin Xu
which this oddity was, as the main document w
Where there is no Pressure Pressure increases at approximately one atmosphere for every 10 meters meaning that some areas of the deep sea can reach pressures of above 1,000 atmospheres. This amount of pressure is too extreme for most of the bigger marine organism.
Creatures that live in the depths of the oceans have to live under inconceivably harsh conditions. To survive the high pressure and the lack of food and light, most creatures living in the deepest parts of the oceans are very small. Bigger creatures are usually living in more shallow parts of the sea, but those who live in the deep sea have unique surviving techniques. The deep sea frogfish (or anglerfish) for example, has a glowing stick on his head to hunt. Small fish are drawn to the light and come closer. When they are close enough, the frogfish reaches out and snaps at the fish. We don‘t know much about the creatures living in the deepest parts of the deep sea, as they are hard to examine. most of them can‘t be brought to the surface, as they would explode due to the pressure difference.
Light?|8
light, there is...
Picture of a Jellyfish in the dark by Master Wen
Darkness.
Light?||10 Light?
Light in the ocean decreases with depth, with minimal light penetrating between 200-1,000 meters. Depths below 1,000 meters do not receive any light from the surface.
Picture of a Blue-Ringed Octopus by Kris-Mikael Krister
Dangers of the sea When we think about deadly creatures of the sea, the shark is usually the first thought of. That assumption is completely wrong though. Shark attacks make less than 10% of all deaths directly caused by sea creatures with around 6 to 10 per year. Other potentially dangerous creatures like stingrays are also not as deadly as one might think, with about 2 deaths caused per year. A creature you may not think of, yet by far the most deadly known of, causing about 100 deaths with its poison each year, is the box jellyfish. One of these creatures bears enough toxin to kill 60 people at once. Another Creature, the Puffer fish, also kills around 100 people per year, but he doesn‘t count as those deaths are all caused from eating them. Obviously, more than only 108 people die each year at sea, not in encounters with creatures but by drowning. Around 236.000 people drown in Oceans another 100.000 people drown in lakes and rivers annually. Most of these people are refugees trying to cross the oceans to get to safer lands. The boats these people put all their hope in are usually crowded old fisher boats that are not made to withstand the currents nor the harsh weather at sea. Many of these ships are caught in storms or sink due to being overloaded.
Death?|12
“Falling coconuts kill 150 people worldwide each year, 15 times the number of fatalities attributable to sharks.” -George Burgess: University of Florida Everyone knows this or a variation of this Quote even though it is not true.
Picture of a hammershark by Jonas Allert
deep down.
by Josef Pachmayr Bolzano BZ, Italy Josef.pachmayr@kabelmail.de
