Creepy - There's Something Odd Going on in the Waters Off of Maui

Episode Date: July 10, 2020

Swim at your own risk...***Written by Shane Superville and narrated by Cole Bu***Check out our reward tiers at patreon.com/creepypod***You can also subscribe to us on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/creepypod***Produced by Steve Blizin***Title music by Alex Aldea***Intro/Outro Narration by Joe Stofko Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Creepy Presents. There's something odd going on in the waters off of Maui. Written by definitely Steve Irwin and narrated by Megan McDuffie. If I'm going to be honest, I'm not entirely sure why I'm posting this. I've altered my IP address. I'm using a VPN, and, in my opinion, I've covered my tracks pretty well. Heck, I'm posting here because most people will think it's a fictional account,

and hopefully this post won't get enough traction to gain the attention of anyone involved in this matter. I mean, it won't be awful if my posting this has discovered. Not going to be killed or imprisoned or anything. Well, hopefully. But I might at least lose my job, and it's a job I've enjoyed these past couple years. But I've put enough together to realize that something is really wrong in the waters off of Maui, the beautiful Hawaiian island that I've had the privilege to call my home since late 2017.

And some people, for some reason, aren't wanting the truth to get out. But I think getting the word out is important, and I need it somewhere to vent. So, here I am. Hopefully at least one person might take this semi-seriously, and there's the possibility that a life or two might even be saved because of it. If you're in Hawaii right now, please just take a few minutes to read through this. I'm a marine biologist, and after finishing up my master's a few years ago through the Scripps Institute, I've been working at a whale watching and eco-tour group in South Maui.

While I'm admittedly not much more than a tour guide, I really do enjoy the work. Not only do I get to spend my days on the ocean and educating tourists to gain as much of a passion for the sea as I have, but my particular organization does research as well, so it's not just a tourist trap. The Snorkel and Wildlife Tours fund our conservation research, meaning we get to make a difference no matter our role. I'd like to get a more conservation-focused career someday, but for now it's perfectly fun and meaningful way to pay the bills. The weirdness started in June 2018, only a couple months after the Kilauea volcano on our neighboring Big Island began erupting. Anyone who had access to internet last year heard of it. It was the first major eruption for decades since the 80s IIRC, and the devastation affected many on the island.

Heck, even here on Maui, smoke and ash would blow over if the winds hated us. And people with asthma and other lung problems were advised to stay indoors. I had just started the job in December, and in all my foreign naivety, I was wondering if this was going to be a common occurrence. Thankfully, things here volcano-wise are much better now. However, ever since last summer, I've noticed that our very very much. vessels get more SOS calls than they had before. I've talked to several co-workers that have been here longer than me, and they've confirmed that the sheer number of SOS calls has raised exponentially

since last summer, at least one every two weeks. I'm not saying necessarily that this is caused by the eruption, but, as I'll explain, further down, there's been an awful lot of weirdness that started up directly following Kilauea becoming more active. As all of our ships are technically licensed Coast Guard vessels, we have a duty to head straight towards any SOS calls. However, ever since the uptick and distress signals starting last year, we've been instructed by the Coast Guard itself to not follow any signals unless they specifically request our help. My co-workers have been confused at this. Sure, an actual Coast Guard ship will be well equipped to help those in trouble at sea, but they can't be everywhere at once.

and it's a huge help for any ship nearby, whether cargo ship or simple tourist vessel, to head to the distress signal at once. Fatalities from boating accidents can decrease immensely by doing so. My organization was confused by this at first, but the Coast Guard was adamant about their decision, and they claimed it was done so as not to panic our guests. B.S., I say, other vessels island-wide that do not rest. regularly carry tourists were given the same instructions. None of our captains were happy about this, but now if an SOS signal comes on during a trip, the captain simply ignores it, then our tourists are

none the wiser. I have to admit, all this strangeness does make me feel uncomfortable about being on the water so much, but have never come in danger aboard one of our trips so far. Alarms really started going off in my head, though, when I was helping the research department. in finalizing their shark attack numbers for Maui. My company regularly keeps tabs on reported shark attacks around the Hawaiian islands to submit to government databases. Not only does this allow us to see if shark behavior is changing, but as attacks are relatively rare,

it helps to teach the public that sharks aren't all as dangerous as believed. You're more likely to get bitten by a New Yorker or killed by a toilet than attacked by a shark. The numbers were oddly high for 2018. Disturbingly, 12 people had been reported killed. For reference, none had previously been killed by a shark since 2015. This uptick was worrying, but as I only volunteer for the research department, I didn't actually get to lead any investigations into it.

I just helped them with whatever projects they're working on at the time. However, several months later, I discovered the publicly released shark attack record for the year, and it claims there were only three attacks in 2018, none of them fatal. I questioned my friends in research, and they explained they'd contacted the government offices in charge of releasing the public data, who kindly told them to F off, probably in more polite tones, but that was the gist of the discussion, according to them. I inquired as to whether or not. this had ever happened before. They said that shark attack data in past years had never been

censored like this. Normally, I'd think we'd have a Jaws scenario at hand where corrupt officials are trying to downplay shark attacks so as not to scare away the tourists. But with this coinciding with Kilauea's eruption and the rise in distress calls, I began to wonder if something more is going on at hand. That's not the end of the anomalies. Being primarily into cetacean research, we spend a lot of time listening to whale calls. While listening to some old recordings taken from the past year, I recognized a very peculiar whale song that did not fit within the usual humpbacks that migrate into the waters. In college, I had completed a project on the so-called Loneliest Whale, a whale whose song has been picked up on hydrophones since 92, but has never been

seen in person. The weird thing about this whale is that its calls are much higher than any other whales, but about 52 hertz. Most other species range about 10 to 40 hertz, meaning that all other whales can't even hear old Lonely's cries. Called the loneliest whale, because it seems to be the only one of its kind. This creature has perplexed biologists for decades, and multiple theories about its identity have been thrown out, ranging from the creature being deaf to it being a hybrid mix of other whale species. However, ever since last summer, regular lonely whale calls have been occurring in Hawaii, and they seem to be from a different individual than the one known to the public. I asked the research team if they had submitted this to the group.

on the mainland that's studying the other loneliest whale. They said that they were going to, but had once again been blocked by government officials who asked them to simply hold on releasing the records until they gave them the okay to do so. This whole government censorship thing is weird, especially since this is simply whale song we're dealing with. The real clincher for me, though, was seeing one of these anomalies firsthand a couple weeks ago, and I've been ruminating on it since I decided to finally type this out in what's probably an impulsive moment. However, in early May, one of our boats was heading back from a snorkel trip when the captain suddenly stopped the boat.

The guests immediately got a little jittery, wondering whether he spotted interesting wildlife or if something was wrong with the ship. In order to calm their nerves, the captain relayed over the intercom that he believes he spotted an animal. animal of our 10 o'clock and to keep our eyes peeled. I rushed to the rail with my naturalist colleagues, hoping to identify the creature to give some fun facts about it to our guests. And at first, we became extremely excited, because by its gray and white coloring and sheer size, it looked to be a tiger shark, the apex predators of Hawaiian waters, and an extremely rare sight that co-workers that had been working here for much longer than myself have never seen.

Our throats caught in our tongues, though, as we realized something was wrong. This creature, probably fully grown at about ten feet long, was floating belly up. I mean, it would have been ten feet long if it hadn't been bitten in half. The sight was gory, and red blood stood out dramatically against the sapphire blue. waters, with viscera dripping out of the gaping wound. Had the biologist part of my brain been working at this moment, I would have realized that this must have just happened, as sharks tend to sink after death. Whatever had killed it must have been frightened off by the boat, was likely hanging around beneath us, trying to discern whether we were a threat. As we all realized

what it was. Nervous or disgusted chatter broke out among the guests. Parents quickly covered their children's eyes. And predictably, some tourists started recording on their phones. As I typed this now, I wish I could have asked them for the video, as naturalists weren't allowed to use their phones in the presence of guests. I didn't have mine on hand. Over the intercom, the captain gave a quick, crowd-pleasing explanation about tiger-shark fights over territory, occasionally becoming gnarly, and quickly started up the boat again and headed for the harbor at full speed. That explanation was bullshit, but I knew at that moment he was thinking the same thing I was. Nothing known in these waters could bite a tiger shark clean in half, and all we knew, was that distress signals from other vessels had increased quite a lot over the past year.

Tigers are the apex predators in Hawaii's oceans, only surpassed by Great White sharks, which occasionally take pit stops by the islands on migration to and from California. Even so, not even the largest Great White on record could bite a tiger cleanly in half, especially not a fully grown adult. Maybe a sperm whale? but they're rare around here, and both species have no reason to bother the other. As our boat left the shark carcass in the distance, myself and many others aboard saw it slip

beneath the waters, either sinking naturally or being dragged under. I'm really not sure what to do here, but I obviously want to do something. I fear that something strange may be in Maui's waters, and whether it was tied to last year's volcano or not, I think that getting the word out may even help save some lives. I love the ocean. I don't think it's particularly dangerous as long as you do your research, and even shark attacks are extremely rare. But right now, I think that there may be more than sharks off of Maui, and for some reason, I'm starting to get paranoid that some people are trying to cover it up, though the reason why is completely beyond me at the moment.

I'm thinking of going to a news agency, but I also recall how our shark attack and whale song research was blocked from being released. And I wonder if I may face consequences if these anomalies are published on any more serious medium. If any of you have advice for me, or even reports of similar strange things, I would appreciate your words. even if it's just to say that I'm crazy and have been watching too many conspiracy videos on YouTube but at the least do me a favor to calm my anxious heart and if you are on Maui or even anywhere in Hawaii at the moment

try to stay out of the water until we know more about what's going on thank you for taking the time to read my anxious rambles for more information including pictures and video of the stories told on this podcast or to suggest stories for future episodes, please visit us. At Creepypod on Twitter, Instagram.

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