The data comes from Enigma, an app that's been quietly building what it claims is the world's largest database of anomalous phenomena since launching in 2022. They've logged more than 30,000 UFO and UAP reports overall, but it's the underwater angle that's proving particularly intriguing. Of those 9,000 coastal sightings, approximately 500 occurred within five miles of shore—close enough to be genuinely concerning from a national security perspective, and close enough that we can't simply write them off as distant lights misidentified by excitable witnesses.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, California tops the list with 389 reported USO sightings, followed by Florida with 306. These are states with massive coastal populations and plenty of maritime activity, which could explain some of the uptick. But then again, plenty of heavily populated coastlines exist around the world without generating thousands of reports of objects behaving in ways that seem to defy conventional physics.
More than 150 of these reports describe objects hovering above water or—and this is where it gets properly strange—transitioning seamlessly between air and sea. We're talking about craft that allegedly move at extraordinary speeds underwater, change direction with impossible precision, and enter or exit water without creating the splash or disturbance you'd expect from, well, anything governed by the laws of physics as we currently understand them.
This so-called "transmedium" capability has caught the attention of some heavyweight voices. Retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, former Oceanographer of the US Navy and former Acting Administrator of NOAA, published a paper in March 2024 arguing that these underwater phenomena deserve serious scientific attention. His credentials are impeccable—this isn't some conspiracy theorist shouting into the void.
"The fact that unidentified objects with unexplainable characteristics are entering US water space and the DOD is not raising a giant red flag is a sign that the government is not sharing all it knows about all-domain anomalous phenomena," Gallaudet wrote. He went further, suggesting that the scientific implications of objects capable of moving seamlessly between air and water "are nothing short of world changing."
And he's got a point, hasn't he? If something can transition between those two mediums at speed without producing heat signatures, sonic booms, or even a bloody splash—well, that's engineering that would revolutionise everything from submarine warfare to commercial shipping. The technology alone would be transformative, never mind the rather larger questions about who or what might be operating these craft.
One case keeps coming up in discussions about underwater UAPs: the USS Omaha incident from July 2019. Pentagon-verified footage shows a spherical object flying above the Pacific off San Diego before descending into the water. Navy personnel can be heard on the recording remarking on the event, and despite a submarine search, no wreckage was ever recovered.
This wasn't an isolated event, either. Multiple Navy vessels reported similar encounters over an extended period. A sailor who was on the bridge of the Omaha later contacted Admiral Gallaudet to say that what they saw that night was just one of many such objects, and that he'd witnessed a similar event aboard the USS Jackson in 2023.
The Pentagon has confirmed the footage is genuine and under review by the UAP Task Force, but beyond that? Silence. Which is either because they genuinely don't know what they're looking at, or—and this is where conspiracy theories find fertile ground—they know considerably more than they're letting on.
The sceptical explanation, of course, is that we're looking at advanced drones—possibly foreign, possibly domestic—being tested in and around US waters. It's not an unreasonable hypothesis. We know that Russian spy ships have been spotted near undersea cables, and that various nations are developing increasingly sophisticated underwater technology.
But here's where that explanation starts to fray: the reported capabilities don't match anything in the known technology catalogue. Kent Heckenlively, author of "Catastrophic Disclosure: Aliens, The Deep State and The Truth," told Fox News that reports of underwater vessels detecting craft moving at exceptionally high speeds represent "something we don't understand, or that means our technology is picking up ghosts underwater."
Ron James, Media Relations Director for MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network), suggested something even more provocative: "There could be an entire advanced civilization coexisting with us here on planet Earth. They could be inside the earth, or they could be underwater."
Now, before we all start planning expeditions to find Atlantis, it's worth remembering that 95% of the ocean remains unexplored. We know more about the surface of Mars than we do about our own seabed. If something wanted to remain hidden, the deep ocean would be an ideal place for it. As James Cameron's obsessive deep-ocean explorations have demonstrated—and trust me, the man's looking for more than just shipwrecks—we've barely scratched the surface of what's down there.
The real head-scratcher with these USO reports is the physics. Water is roughly 800 times denser than air. Objects moving through it at high speed should generate enormous heat, friction, and noise. They should create cavitation bubbles, pressure waves, bioluminescent disturbances in marine life. Instead, witnesses describe objects that glide through both mediums as though the transition means nothing to them.
If you're interested in diving deeper into the technical impossibilities—and they are properly baffling—the engineering challenges alone would represent a quantum leap beyond current human technology. We're not talking about incremental advances here; we're talking about physics we don't yet understand.
Admiral Gallaudet has been vocal about what he sees as governmental complacency. In his testimony before Congress, he expressed frustration that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)—the Pentagon's UFO investigation unit—has produced what he called "underwhelming" reports that lack substantive data and appear designed to placate rather than illuminate.
The AARO has acknowledged hundreds of unresolved cases but maintains there's no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology. Which is a carefully worded statement, isn't it? No verified evidence. But plenty of unverified, unexplained, and downright peculiar evidence that seems to be piling up like wet towels in a teenage boy's bedroom.
Right, so where does this leave us? We've got thousands of reports, credible military witnesses, Pentagon-verified footage, and physical sensor data from calibrated military equipment all pointing towards something genuinely anomalous happening in and around US waters. The explanations on offer range from advanced foreign technology to natural phenomena we don't yet understand to—and let's just say it—non-human intelligence.
For those wanting to explore the broader context of underwater UAPs and their potential implications—this really is the hidden dimension of the entire phenomenon—it's worth noting that historical records contain centuries of similar reports. Medieval chronicles described strange lights and objects in and around water. Modern military logs contain radar and sonar contacts that simply shouldn't exist.
The cynic in me wants to believe we're looking at a combination of misidentification, sensor errors, and perhaps some classified military technology being tested without proper coordination. But the sheer volume of reports, the quality of some witnesses, and the consistency of the described capabilities make that explanation increasingly difficult to maintain with a straight face.
Setting aside questions of alien civilisations and underwater bases for a moment—because I can feel some of you rolling your eyes already—there's a genuine national security concern here that transcends the UFO debate entirely. If these are foreign drones or submarines, that's a massive problem. If they're natural phenomena, we need to understand them to avoid catastrophic mistakes. And if they're something else entirely? Well, that raises questions that make "who's the next Prime Minister" seem rather quaint by comparison.
Admiral Gallaudet has called for proper scientific research, government transparency, and coordination between civilian and military oceanographic resources. It's a reasonable request. We spend billions on space exploration whilst largely ignoring 95% of our own planet's surface. Perhaps it's time we looked a bit closer to home.
As it stands, the 2025 surge in USO reports represents either the most extensive misidentification event in maritime history, a significant intelligence failure regarding foreign incursions, or evidence of something operating in our waters that challenges our fundamental understanding of physics and biology. None of those options are particularly comforting, but pretending it's not happening seems an increasingly untenable position.
The data is there. The witnesses are credible. The footage exists. What we do with that information—whether we investigate it properly or continue shuffling it into classified briefings that lead nowhere—will say rather a lot about how seriously we take the unknown. And judging by the 9,000-plus reports since August, the unknown is rather keen on making itself noticed.
