Cargo ship crews film giant waves and share them on social media

MEXICO CITY (apro).- Sailors aboard cargo ships in the North Sea, a marginal sea in the Atlantic Ocean, have shared videos that have gone viral due to the dangerous environment in which they carry out their work.

The videos show huge cargo ships of different types moving forward in the rough sea, while the waves invade the ships and the crew members try to take shelter. While others show images of storms or the darkness of the night from oil platforms.

Lucy Bricheno, a coastal oceanographer at the U.K.’s National Oceanography Centre, told National Geographic that the North Sea’s well-known churning is partly due to the fact that the sea is surrounded by land on many sides, so waves don’t have much room to spread out and form giant peaks.

While all kinds of information about the North Sea has been shared on social media, due to images of strong waves and storms, Sofia Caires, an expert on wave conditions at the Deltares Institute in the Netherlands, clarified to The New York Times that waves in the North Sea can reach 20 meters in height.

The images posted on social media may be terrifying, but the North Sea is not the stormiest body of water in the world. The Southern Ocean, for example, has recorded waves of 23.5 metres high, but it has much less shipping traffic, so there is less exposure to its waters on platforms such as TikTok or X.

This body of water is not the deepest either, despite what has been spread on social media. The depths of the North Sea generally range from 37 to 91 metres, although in some parts it can reach depths of up to 300 metres.

The North Sea is a busy seaport, with some of the world’s largest and most important ports on its shores. Germany, Belgium, France, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom share this body of water, which is vital to Western European trade.

@mrvincenzo_ North Sea The most dangerous sea In The World has very large Waves ???? #bigwaves #northsea #waves #ocean ? Hoist The Colours – Bass Singers – Bobby Bass & Ebucs & Eric Hollaway & Daniel Brevik & The Wellermen & David Dalmonte & Luke G. Taylor & Jesse Elkins

@at_sea_ @at_sea_ These clips may shock you ?? #storm #bigwaves #monster #ship #vessel #atsea ? ???????????? ???? – at_sea_