I was a Marine Biologist/ Scuba Diver for 63 years. Here is a collection of stories

My name is Paul Truman, and I was recently diagnosed with Terminal Pancreatic Cancer. My days are dwindling, and when my wife, Helen, of 62 years passed away last year, I began to accept that. I want to preserve my legacy, as a way for everyone to learn what really goes on below the surface of the ocean.
This is a collection of story's from myself and my colleagues that i've collected in over 63 years as a Marine Biologist/ Professional diver.
One thing ive realized over this life long journey, is that humans are a peculiar species. In my eyes it's because we haven't even uncovered the deepest secrets of our planet, and yet we extend our reach to others. There is so much we chose to ignore. So much happening beyond our comprehension. For example:
Fifty years ago last November, myself and twelve other colleagues, including my wife (God rest her soul), set out on a month long trip to observe the Great Blue Whale.
We were a hearty crew. I can only remember a few names besides my wife and I. There was Thomas, the captain and leader of the expedition. Matthew, the ships cook and my best friend. Peter, the stout co captain . And Oscar the meek intern. The others were all kind, and we got along quite well.
Twenty four days in, we had gotten plenty of heavy data and were satisfied with it. Matthew, being the ships captain decided we were going to end our expedition early, we had more then enough information to please those back home.
A round of beers and a sunset later, we were on our way home. Everyone except Matthew and Peter were below deck snug in their cots.
I don't exactly remember what woke me up that night, but I soon found myself unable to fall back asleep. I sleepily wandered on deck and gazed into the night. The pale moonlight illuminated the cloudy sky and stormy sea below. The light of the captains compartment left a yellow glow that engulfed me in a warm safe light. I spent a good ten minutes admiring the way the water splashed the edges of the boat, and the way the waves broke in perfect synchronization; when I noticed something strange. There was another light source besides the boat and the sky. A small, barely noticeable, glow was forming a halo around the edge of the boat. I don't know how else to describe it except all I can think of is that it was not man made in anyway . I stood, transfixed, as it slowly got brighter and brighter. I snapped my gaze to the captains chamber where the two inside seemed to be noticing the same thing as I. Suddenly, the glow began to extend outwards, turning the water a whitish yellow. It got brighter and brighter, then suddenly with a BANG it disappeared in a second leaving me and the others utterly confused and terrified.
Us three didn't sleep a wink that night, and that morning we talked to others on board none of whom had heard or seen anything out of the ordinary that night. After telling them this story they all thought we were pulling their legs. The rest of the boat ride, we kept quiet. I haven't mentioned it to anyone except my wife until now.
This next story happened to a buddy of mine named Bill. We were at a bar having a drink when he confessed something that had happened to him.
"Me and my buddy were suppose' to go scuba diving off the coast of Mexico, ya know, to take samples of coral and whatnot"
He spoke in a deep southern accent, and was slightly intoxicated. It was late, the bar was winding down, and there were only a few people there. At this point he was captivating the attention of the entire bar and the ten people inside. They gathered round as he continued his tale.
"We were well prepared and completely ecstatic , a new species of coral had just been discovered. Neither of us had seen it but it apparently inhabited the bays of Mexico."
He took a deep breath and continued.
"Well when we got down there we immediately noticed a deep humming sort of sound, it sounded like it was coming from this one area near a large crack in a rock. Unfortunately for us, the same coral we needed to test was crowded in almost exclusively that spot.
Me, being the curious fella' I am, wanted to investigate the weird sound. I swam over and peered down into the little crack, a second later rearing back in horror and disgust."
The bar was quiet now, everyone leaning in to hear the rest of his story.
"There in that crack I saw human hand.
That in itself was pretty terrifying, but this hand was rearin' and movin' about. It looked fused to the rock or somethin'. It obviously belonged to a women cause of the shape.
It seemed to be grasping a small turquoise stone. I had enough common sense to not investigate further ".
His eyes were wide, and his hands were all over the place.
" I signaled to my pal that there was an emergency and we had to come back up. We didn't have the samples we needed. But I defiantly wasn't going back down there to get any. My partner, too dedicated for his own good, decided he needed that god damn coral "
Now he addresses the crowd that has grown in size.
"I don't know if y'all have ever been scuba diving, but you have to go up to the surface real slow, 'cause if you don't you get a horrible thing called the bends where there's air in ya' joints and it's extremely painful"
A few people nodded their heads
"Well I started slowly floating up keepin' my eye on that stone, my partner starts to swim over to it because he figures that he can still get a sample and get his ass right back up next to me."
He pauses and takes a drink
" He never even had time to realize what was happenin' to 'em. 'Cause as soon as he snapped off a piece of the coral, the buzzing sound stopped. The hand, that had extended to the length of an arm, now glowed almost translucent white. It lightly touched him, and all at once he turned brighter then the sun and disappeared. I'll never forget the look on his face. Pure terror and agonizing pain.
Needless to say, I got the **** out of there before it could do anything to me. I swam extremely far away and managed to take my time getting to the surface, so I wouldn't contract The Bends.
My pal never showed up again, and mos' people thought I had killed him. But i'm the only one who knows the truth."
He finished his story with a sigh. He then proceeded to excuse himself to the door. Before he left he took a look backwards at all of us huddled there, smiled, and exited.
This one happened to me when I was a rookie, and i've heard a lot of people who had similar experiences. I was on a day trip along the coast of Oregon, when I spotted a face in the water, just below the surface.
She (I can only assume it was a she because of the long flowing hair and feminine features) was distorted in the water. Her features seemed to fade in and out of focus, her eyes were closed, and a naked pale blue body was sprawled out underneath her. I stared in awe at her mysterious beauty. Her complexion, while blue, was smooth and flawless. Her hair was a deep cyan. Her lips were the same dark color as her hair. She was beautiful but looked lonely and sad.
Then she opened her eyes.
She made direct eye contact with me, and all at once I felt at peace. Her eyes were cool, safe, riveting, bright blue, and beautiful. She smiled at me and tried to reach above the water, but seemed trapped by an invisible force. She couldn't pass the surface of the water, as if there was an invisible barrier. Her delicate pale fingertips sadly grazed the surface when she realized she couldn't pass She then nodded at me and slowly submerged into the salty sea below.
I have heard other story's of this mysterious tranquil women. We used to call her the "Blue Moon Lady". My wife encountered the "Blue Moon Lady" one day when she was scuba diving. Apparently she had seen the sillowhette of a women floating limply underwater. When approaching her, my wife realized she had blue skin and blue hair. The "Blue Moon Lady" waved cheerily at my wife then, what my wife described as "melted into the water".
Another time a fishing boat reported seeing her "Sprint across the water on her toes" They then reported she "Paused, looked at them, smiled, and dropped like a weight"
Many other people had similar encounters. She always seemed very friendly to the conservation boats especially.
But not every experience with the "Blue Moon Lady" was positive. When a Whale Watching Boat saw her, she had grown razor sharp teeth the length of fingernails and sat on a rock, smiling creepily at their boat as they passed.
"Her eyes were as black as coal" One said. The other chimed in with their observations.
"Her hair was white" "Her skin was putrid green" "Her limbs were twisted in unnatural directions" " There was mud, trash, and debrie stuck in her skin"
That was the last time anyone had seen the "Blue Moon Lady".
I have a feeling she was a spirit older then Humanity, and we upset her when we stopped caring about the Ocean. I don't know where she went, or if she's ok, but I sincerely hope she is happy.
One last story until I wrap it up for now. I'm an old man, and I find myself tiring easier and easier. Maybe I'll continue this collection some other day. Anyways. This next one may be the scariest thing i've ever encountered in all my years as a Marine Biologist.
I was part of the crew of four that got on one of the first submarines to search for eco-systems living in ship wrecks. We knew all the protocols. The survival expectancy was 40% but I did it anyways. I'm the kind of person who wants to know everything. I would never, ever ever ever ever turn down an opportunity like this. So when I boarded that little craft that would either kill me or take me on the best adventure of my life, you can understand my excitement. We checked the vehicle for faults and the slowly began our descent into the dark water below. Ten minutes later, we saw it.
A shipwreck.
I gasped in awe, i had only seen drawings and pictures. There's something about seeing the real thing that is so much more awe- inspiring. We drifted close to the sea floor, and began scanning for floor life. Well at least everyone else did, I was distracted by a strange shape inside the shipwreck. A shadow.
Of a man.
I was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me until it darted across the wall. I quickly brought it to the others attention. They went silent, and we watched it move and dart across the ship wreck. It was unmistakably a human shadow. We started talking in hushed voices arguing what we should do.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A tapping noise was coming from the right side of the Sub-Marine.
Tap. Tap. Tap. The shadow was gone. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The tapping got faster and rapider until it sounded like one noise, a slur. Then it stopped. We all huddled together, completely terrified.
A man emerged from the shadows, walking on the bottom of the sea floor as causally as one walks across a room. He stopped ten or twenty feet in front of us.
It was then I got a good look at him. His body was decomposing as far as I could see. Crabs and shrimp burrowed into his flesh creating moving mounds. His skin was the color of decay. The contents of his chest was impossibly close to spilling out.
And his face was the worst part.
His cheeks were huge. His mouth formed a humongous smile that should now have been possible for the size of his face. His eyes were empty black holes. His nose simply wasn't there, instead replaced by a small tentacled creature. It's tentacles grabbing this way and that. He stood for a second, then let out an blood curdling scream, higher then any human could muster. His face still in that horrible smile. He then appeared in front of the glass. His mouth unhinged and out came another tentacled creature. It dragged its self out of him, and floated limp in the water for a second. It jolted quickly and opened its deep purple eyes. It stared at one of the men on the crew. Suddenly he was no longer sitting next to me. He was outside, suffocating. The captain took that as our queue to get the hell out of there. When we got to the surface the leader of the expedition told us to keep quiet about it. Funeral and life insurance arrangements were made for the family of the man who had died. And that was that. I never saw any of the people on my crew ever again.
That's all for now, I have plenty more stories these are just the ones that stood out the most. As for me, i'm going to sleep. Maybe tomorrow I will write some more, who knows.


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