An oil rig worker dropped a tiny piece of food into the ocean — what he noticed soon was terrifying

With only less than 10% of the Earth's oceans explored, this man finds out another scary detail about the marine world.

PUBLISHED MAR 2, 2025

Man from an oil rig dropping food into the ocean. (Cover Image Source: Reddit | Reddit user)

We all know about the terrors of the ocean’s great depths, from strange creatures emerging out of nowhere to the unending darkness that engulfs the vast ocean floor. Rest assured, there are equally insane things happening on the surface. Ocean enthusiasts or not, this video shared by a Reddit user sent chills down the spine with people pledging to never set foot into the deep blue ever again, understandably. One fine day, a man working at an oil rig decided to exhibit what happens to the tiniest chunk of food scrap flicked casually into the ocean.

A man watches as the fish devour his leftover food. (Image Source: Reddit | (r/AbruptChaos)) — A man watches as the fish devour his leftover food. (Image Source: Reddit | Reddit user)

The viral video, upvoted about 85,000 times on Reddit, showed a man in brown boots, standing hundreds of feet above the ocean’s surface on a metal grate on an oil rig. Presumably at lunch time, the man decides to share a bit of his food with the fish below. It is difficult to identify the variety of the food he passed down to his finned pals, guesses include chicken nuggets or a cookie, but surely was tasty enough to invite schools of fish to the point of the food drop. The mysterious man slips a flat portion of the snack from between the gaps on the metal panel he was standing on and it flies through the air for a fraction of a second before hitting the water.

Large school of Blue streak fusiliers. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | ifish)

What followed was an unexpected sight, terrifying enough to instill a fear of the ocean, known as thallasophobia. The food, as soon as it plops into the ocean, vanishes into a milky white foam of water caused by hundreds of small fish battling it out to devour the grand prize. Within a matter of seconds, several fish dart like rockets into the previously seeming still water. “Can you imagine falling in?” the post’s caption asked. Honestly, not at all! It appeared as though the fish had already been waiting for something to fall in, and thankfully, it was only a chunk of leftover food.

Tropical lagoon of Biyadhoo island seen from the pier. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Federica Grassi)

Internet took the hint and reacted to the video with a mix of comments. “What is this place? I'm trying to visualize a cold place with a catwalk 50m above blue water full of hangry fish,” wrote one person (u/altruisticSalamander) while another Reddit (u/Alaeriia) user visualized, “It's like spitting in the water in the pond at Cedar Point to watch the carp fight over who gets to eat it.” “If they were all piranha I wonder how long a human would last if you fell in,” someone else (u/5DollarShake_) decided to speculate. A fellow user (u/ZenkaiZ) proposed a creative dialogue, “One tiny voice below, 'Ey, where’s the dipping sauce?'”

A shark in the dark ocean. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | GEORGE DESIPRIS)

Some people were confused if the small fish would actually go for a live human while others tried to decipher the mystery of the food thrown. Chicken nuggets seemed to be the popular opinion. Nevertheless, the snippet is one of the reasons why people get thalassophobia, due to the fear of the unknown and the deep waters, of course. According to Healthline, when a person does not have sufficient information about the environment they are in, it triggers fight or flight responses of anxiety and fear. Next time you step into the deep blue, remember to flick a stone over first, to be safe.