The Bloop

The earliest of these was Upsweep in 1991, with it becoming louder in spring and autumn and being loud enough to be recorded across the Pacific, Bloop and Slow down later were recorded in 1997 with Slow down being recorded several times since, Julia appeared 2 years later and made its presence known.

these sounds have fascinated many for years, especially given the constant nature of Upsweep and Slow down and the organic sounds of Julia and Bloop (especially Julia, seriously go listen to it when you can). Many just pass these noises of as simple icebergs but that still wouldn’t explain everything, especially when it took them 15 years to come to that conclusion, how different they sound to typical icebergs, why Upsweep changes with the seasons, the location of some of them etc etc. I’m not saying it’s a coverup but something definitely doesn’t add up here.

sooo if it’s not some weird seasonal icebergy thing that screams then what is it? I hear you ask, well we know whatever it is, is larger than a blue whale and rarely, if ever, surfaces, so how about a massive cephalopod? I know I know, cephalopods don’t have vocal cords but maybe it doesn’t need them, cephalopods are known for a complex body shape capable of jet propulsion, where it sucks in water through the bell, past the gills and through the siphon. something this large likely had to constantly pump water through itself and out but move very slowly, however if the creature was ever startled it could fill its body with water and fire a powerful jet to blow away the threat and maybe move a bit further from it. This would explain why noises like Julia and Bloop are on off noises, because the giant creature was startled (potentially from a pod of sperm whales) and why Slow down and Upsweep happen all the time, the increased activity in Upsweep could even relate to migrating behaviour in spring and autumn, with them migrating up from the depths and in numbers to breed (like Humboldt, firefly and other various types of squid). In other words theses aren’t true vocalisations but instead the sound of water being pumped in and out of the body of a giant cephalopod as it moves, perhaps these could be used by the creatures to communicate with special internal structures to amplify its calls since colour changing is pretty redundant in the pitch black darkness of the ocean depth but I’m just speculating here.

You might notice something strange about it, it’s strange appendage by its head, pale pupil less eyes and the fact I haven’t referred to it as a squid or octopus just Cephalopod, that’s because it’s actually a vampire squid relative. The Vampire squid, as strange as it sounds, isn’t a squid or an octopus but an animal more closely related to the latter and is unique in the way it feeds. Vampire squids have a unique retractable feeding appendage that it uses to filter out detritus rather than doing anything predatory like most cephalopods. Now the vampire squid is limited in size due to residing in the oxygen minimum zone however these zones are typically found alongside the western coast of continents and not the open ocean depts and this wouldn’t be the first time a vampire squid relative got huge in different conditions. Tusoteuthus is a very large cephalopod from the late Cretaceous that is seemingly more closely related to vampire squids and octopuses (octopi, octopeople, well you know what I mean) than squids which have been also known to grow massive. Now I know this guy is much larger than both of them (although it’s possible both giant squids and Tusoteuthus could grow much larger than reported sizes, especially since sperm whales have been found with truly massive sucker marks on them much bigger than anything we’ve found beaks or bodies for but still) and that does raise a question, how does it eat? Well that’s quite simple, it’s a filter feeder, using its long retractable appendage like a vampire squid and having specially modified gill baskets (like what filter feeding sharks have) in its bell to help bring in even more food to support its massive size.

a creature this large would likely have nothing to fear but if my hypothesis is correct we know something startled it at least twice, volcanic activity can be ruled out since they’re not audible in the recordings so maybe a large group of sperm whales could mob and harass the creature in hopes of ripping parts of its sensitive feeding appendage off to feed on. We know sperm whales do travel and dive together in groups of 15 to 20 can grow up pretty large (especially males reaching up to 52ft long) and orcas are known to harass much larger whales in groups so it’s not impossible if not incredibly risky. Something this large likely couldn’t bring in its massive feeding tool that fast giving the smaller whales enough time to attack before retreating once it fully retracts it to not get blasted by its siphon. There’s also the chance something else massive lurks down there big enough to threaten this thing, but I’d rather not jump to conclusions.

So is bloop, under sweep, Julia and slow down the sound of a giant vampire squid relative swimming around in the ocean depths? Possibly however one thing is certain, it’s definitely not any currently known species and would be an impressive beast to behold.

or it’s Godzilla lol