Recently, BuzzFeed came out with what sounded like a really interesting article: 16 Things No One Knows About The Ocean. I've been a fan of BuzzFeed lists before, and some are humorously accurate. But when I clicked through to read the list, I was disappointed. This wasn't their usual hilarious-because-you-know-it's-true-even-if-you-don't-want-to-admit-it style post, or even an awe-inspiring-fact roundup. It was mostly, well, wrong. The post begins: "Welcome to the last frontier on Earth. Sure, the oceans are terrifying and the Kraken might have been real, but the things we don’t know could fill a thousand documentaries on the Discovery Channel." Perhaps the allusion to Discovery is all the more fitting given their recent penchant for faux marine science, but that's no excuse for this shoddy list riddled with factual errors and pseudoscience. I know BuzzFeed community content is produced by a suite of random people, but come on—they need to have some kind of quality control! As a marine scientist, I just couldn't let it slide. So here is a point-by-point explanation of what BuzzFeed doesn't apparently know about the oceans:
May a swarm of "ocean bugs" remind you that they are important, too. 1. We have identified around 250,000 marine species (once you remove duplicates, which is a whole other issue). This is... uh... some of the species in the ocean. See, the trouble with saying "two-thirds of all marine life remain unidentified" is that it implies we know how much marine life there is. One estimate awhile ago suggested there were 10 million species. A more recent and presumably accurate one says closer to 1 million, which means we have IDed somewhere near a third of them, hence the 2/3 undiscovered guesstimation. The scientists actually said that based on what we do know, "25%–80% of species remained to be described." Or, as another paper put it, "between one-third and two-thirds of marine species may be undescribed." They also noted that if current trends continue, we will ID the vast majority in the next century. Even still, these are all ESTIMATES. We don't actually know how many species we haven't identified until we, well, identify them. Current estimates are mathematical models based on species discovery rates and leading taxonomic experts, with some statistical hand-waiving to produce a number. Only time will tell how accurate such estimates are. I'm nitpicking on this one, but for the record, this was a fairly good start, considering.
I wouldn't invoke Cthulhu. The great one gets mad when his name is used in vain. 2. Actually, scientists know full well what made that sound. It was an icequake. Now wasn't that easy? As NOAA and Oregon State University seismologist Robert Dziak explained to Wired: "Ice breaking up and cracking is a dominant source of natural sound in the southern ocean. Each year there are tens of thousands of what we call 'icequakes' created by the cracking and melting of sea ice and ice calving off glaciers into the ocean." And as far as Chuthulu... Wired says: "[Dziak] confirmed that the Bloop really was just an icequake -- and it turns out that's kind of what they always thought it was. The theory of a giant animal making noises loud enough to be heard across the Pacific was more fantasy than science."
