Man Drops His GoPro Into the Ocean To Show a 'Terrifying' World That Few Ever Get to See

In 2021, a GoPro camera experienced the dive of a lifetime when its owner, the Greek photographer Odysseas Froilan (@OdiFroilan) attached it to a fishing string and dropped it down into the deep waters of the Bahamas. As the camera ventured and plunged into the waters, it acted as Froilan’s eye, revealing to him the surreal world of water wildlife. Footage shared by him, which is about to cross 10 million views, shows how the undersea world is eerie and stunningly breathtaking at the same time. The footage covered the camera’s journey starting from daylight lights till night-time.

The seven-minute footage opens to reveal the bowels of Froilan’s cruise ship: an engine room sprawling with cylindrical machines, propellers, power supplies, generators, and electrical controls. The camera then dangles above the expanse of water across the ship’s hull, slowly plummeting down towards its keel. The moment it reaches the keel with a splash, it is welcomed by a massive school of cute pastel blue fishes who seem to be swirling and circling it in playfulness. Soon enough, a shiny silver barracuda enters the picture, followed by another and more. With their pointy mouths and spooky side-eyes, the barracudas make a beeline towards the alien object, as if expressing curiosity about their new guest.

As the footage continues, the camera descends deeper and deeper into the mysterious waters, at times banging into the beds of silted sediment, close to the ship’s anchor. More curious-eyed fish appear to be nibbling the bits of food scrambled in the white clumps of sediment. The camera is then pulled off towards the ship’s bow where it reveals glassy blue sploshes of water plashing with the current, glistening pure and pristine in sunlight. The footage then cuts to the camera’s night-time adventure.

Unlike the daytime footage, the night-time footage opens with the setting of creepy dark waters with speckles of light shimmering here and there. As the camera dives deeper, a frightening creature dashes across its side, rapidly slitting past – a huge shark. A little deeper towards the seafloor, tiny motes appear to be dancing with the columns of bubbles. More sharks emerge out of the darkness, something which made viewers’ skin crawl with terror. “Man, there's something primally terrifying about seeing a shark emerge from the darkness like that,” said @swish007.

The otherworldly footage left people goggle-eyed. "There was something about the giant chains just lying there on the seabed, and the personality the fish seemed to have as if you just caught them off guard. Incredible video," commented @Wanderingturnip. @Calladeem240 said, "It might not be feasible, but how cool would it be if cruise ships had a few cameras on the hull so guests can always look at what's swimming around underneath them." @placetobe_1 wrote, “The way I went from kicking my feet in the air at the cute fishies and thinking ‘maybe the ocean isn’t so scary after all’ in the day footage to blankly staring, terrified, at the night footage, further confirming my intense fear of the ocean.”

@jewelwildmoon reflected, “So nice that the fish immediately accepted the GoPro as their new fish brother.” That’s what Froilan expected when he dropped down the camera, introducing it to these fish. “The GoPro acts as my eyes beneath the surface, while my telephoto lens captures the intricate details of marine mammals and birds,” Froilan told My Modern Met. Ultimately, as much as this footage entertained the viewers, the GoPro had the adventure of a lifetime its image sensors will never forget.

You can follow Odysseas Froilan (@OdiFroilan) on YouTube for stunning animal videos.