The Bloop: Mystery Song of the Sea

As a sceptic, I find it difficult to find a mystery that generally doesn’t come with a collection of credible and well publicised explanations. I am inherently frustrated as I find myself caught between my own scepticism and my desire to encounter something truly anomalous. Therefore it is no wonder my interest has been hooked and keenly retained for many a year by the eerie deep sea exultation known simply as ‘The Bloop’.

The Equatorial Pacific Ocean Autonomous Hydrophone Array (known as the Sound Surveillance System when operated by the US Navy during the Cold War for Soviet submarine detection) picked up and recorded in 1997, the drawn out noise that would be accurately dubbed as ‘The Bloop’ due to it’s distinctive blooping sound. Heard on several occasions throughout the summer months of ’97 and triangulated generally to the South Pacific region which boasts the deepest ravines in the earth’s surface, experts are at odds with the sound, ruffling their brows and scratching their mop-a-top scalps as they struggle to account for the sound. The consensus seems to be that the sound is NOT man-made and is quite possibly, even probably, biological. In short this could be an unknown animal. 

When referring to ‘experts’ in such cases, many writers are guilty of simply selecting the most convenient bleats of the ubiquitous pseudo-scientist and amateur investigator to justify labelling a tale a mystery. But in this case, those experts are the real deal. Marine biologists, oceanographers and even acoustic engineers have all taken a swipe at the mystery and not yet satisfied themselves or the mystery buffs with any robust theory.

By now you may wonder what the excitement is all about. The sea is no silent void. It is positively rippling with sound waves from creaks in the earths crust to the mournful bellows of marine mammals. The sounds of the deep are as hair raising as they are beautiful and there are a swathe of mystery sounds cutting through the depths. But this sound, if biological in nature, belongs to something big.... very big!

The loudest known call of the sea belongs to that marine giant; the magnificent Blue Whale. Yet the Bloop drowns out even this mighty bawl. If this sound is emitted from a sea creature it originates from something far bigger than any creature known to stalk our oceans, a true sea monster! So loud was this song that it was heard by several listening posts over 3,000 miles apart!

In 2008’s Cloverfield movie, a rampant creature emerges from the sea to plough through New York in an unstoppable brawl with the US Military. Yet throughout the movie and the numerous viral marketing websites and adverts threading through the Net, there are occasional hints that this creature is in fact the source for the Bloop. Go ahead and Google ‘Slusho is Bloop’ for more on the Cloverfield connection.

Cloverfield... Bloopy?

Whilst we can’t necessarily accept that the Big Apple is in any danger from Bloopy (as I shall call it), its proposed immense size and the lack of any identification do make it surprising that Hollywood haven’t really run with the tale with greater aplomb.

Perhaps the lack of appeal to Tinsel Town is due to the fact that the sound hasn’t been heard since 1997 despite an awful lot of listening by some very quiet people with some very big microphones! As with all good cryptic subjects it made a brief appearance, disappearing as mysteriously as it had emerged. An enigmatic call of the sea, retaining it’s secret despite suggestions the sound is little more than a giant squid call, the creak of a collapsing ice shelf or a cracking of the earth’s crust. These theories are not popular ones and indeed some have been completely dismissed meaning Bloopy is still lording it over science and technology and defying explanation… the way all good showmen (and Cryptids) do.

For me Bloopy has proved one thing; sometimes a lack of satisfaction is all the more satisfying.