The sea
I've done various ferries on/off of the British mainland and been thrown around on vessels awash with spew, but despite the obvious reason to be scared of the sea (it's cold, it's rough, if you fall in you will drown) it gives me a phobia because you can't see what's in it.

Effectively what we see is the roof. The top. The bit where nothing ventures apart from the odd cetacean and maybe a basking shark or two. Underneath is a three dimensional cornucopia filled with water-adapted creatures any one of which can silently swim (or bobble) up behind you and figuratively go, "Boo!".

The first time I was aware of this problem was way back in the late 1980s. I was on Raasay (an island between Applecross and Skye) and it was a warm, sparkling day. I went for a swim in the pellucid water and dived under to see how far I could see. I had no goggles and visibility was relatively good but it suddenly occurred to me, "What if a thing came swimming towards me? Out of the depths?"

"Oh fuck," I thought.

Since then I have been fishing off the coast of Donegal, have seen jellyfish the size of small hatchbacks around the Hebrides, and watched dolphins fart about in Aberdeen harbour. But always with the notion that they stick to their element, I'll stick to mine...

PS: Everyone's scared of something. Rather than walk around in a state of constant anxiety, it's easier to focus on one subject (dentists, jam, HTML) and load everything on to that...
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 9:29, 5 replies)

Wow, this has reminded me just how scary that is
I think I've grown out of it, but my fear of this type was bad enough for me to be scared of being in the bath when it was all murky from soap and bubbles because something could come out of the depths and get me...

...probably also had to do with my bath-toy boat which never floated but would always sink, slowly filling with water, creating a slightly too realistic sunken wreck at the bottom of a murky sea.
( Hampster Squared has stuff at www.tilla.co.uk, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 9:45, closed)

OH GOD, THIS ^
pretty much sums up my fear... Encountering something much better adapted to it's environment than I am...
( IHaveABadFeelingAboutThis most likely working from home on, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 9:53, closed)

Same phobia here, too
We were on a pedalo while on holiday, pedalling quite nicely across some freshwatermass or other, when suddenly a large fish- a catfish, I believe- jumped INTO the pedalo and onto my then 7-year old lap. Now, I'd never seen a live decent sized fish before- dead, skinned and battered yes, goldfish in a tank yes, but never something on this scale. And it was just so inhuman, so different to anything I'd seen before, and so well facially-barbed that I was actually terrified.
If I'd been much more scared, I'd have had a story for a fortnight ago's QOTW.

And about a decade later, just as I was beginning to get over it, I decided to give windsurfing a go on a similar watermass. And what should brush past my neoprene-covered leg but some sort of unseen demonic feeling scaley thing, followed by those face-barbs that distinguish catfish...

Since then, I've kept out of the water. In those depths Catfish lurk.
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 9:58, closed)

Mmmmm
Sounds like SCUBA diving probably isn't for you, unless you wanted to do the sneaking up on innocent pastey white leggies.
(Neostenine's maker, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 10:16, closed)