YOUR SAY: Into the blue

Now that summer is approaching  I'm sure that everyone has been preparing their swimsuits and towels to head straight up to the beach as soon as this schoolyear ends. The thing is that we don't really know what lies under the sea. Many biologists say, actually, that the surface of the moon is more well-known than the depths of the oceans. Strange, right? How could we not know everything about our planet? Specially about the water environments that cover about 71 % of the Earth's surface.

Yeti crab

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In the last decade more than a thousand new animal species have been discovered in the deep seas, and there are yet a lot more to be found. The Census of Marine Life and the World Register of Marine Species has registered the existence of really strange creatures that can survive in places where sunlight can't reach. There are about 228,000 species known to scientist, but they estimate that the real number is over 2 million species. Everyday, new strange creatures are entering the list. Who knows what may lie in the depths of our oceans?

There are even some scientists that believe that many of these species could be specimens of early evolution. That could easily be true, knowing the fact that some of these creatures are enormous and would have hardly had any predators down there.

Young icefish

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Polychaete Carpet Worm

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The deep blue sea is a world unknown to us, and its landscapes and inhabitants remain a mistery hard to resolve. It strikes me that having the ability to create a lot of advanced technology, there isn't more application of it in the discovering of new creatures in places humans can't reach. It's also a bit scary for me. Whenever I'm bathing at the beach I always wonder if there are any fishes or animals and it makes me really nervous. Knowing that there might be "sea monsters" that no one knows about swimming somewhere under my feet makes it even worse. I'm not saying that we should avoid the beach so we won't meet any of these creatures, I'm just really surprised and curious of it. Personally, I don't like marine species a lot  and I guess that's why it frightens me a little bit, but I do think that there should be more grants for biologists so we can widen our knowleadge of the Earth.

So now... Well, you know, you can go pack your things and go to have a nice, relaxing and quiet bath in the nearest beach! I wish you have a really good time!