Sped-up video of ocean creatures is kind of terrifying

You know what? We take it back. Don’t save the oceans. There’s some really freaky stuff in there.

This video consists of 150,000 shots of corals and sponges, compressed into less than four minutes. A lot of the motion is intended for desedimentation, shaking off detritus like sand and fish excrement that threaten to bury them. At normal speed, it might take weeks for some of these changes to be obvious, but in the video the creatures judder alarmingly or throw tentacles at your face.

Photographer Daniel Stoupin, who made the video, explains that we need to understand slow creatures if we want to save them:

Difficulties in understanding “slow” marine life and interpreting its behaviour, unfortunately, are aggravated by its decline caused by human impact. Marine systems are extremely delicate and react to the tiniest perturbations of the environment. Although such alterations in the environmental parameters appear small to us, they are catastrophic to corals, sponges, and numerous other representatives of marine life that create entire ecosystems in the ocean. Through long chains of connections coral reef deterioration is catastrophic to us as well, for we are ultimately as sensitive to our habitat as the colorful creatures appearing in my time lapses.

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But frankly, we’re not sure anymore. They’re kind of horrible! Kill them with fire!