Forget UFOs — Unidentified Submerged Objects Are Now Capturing the World's Attention

In recent decades, the government has become more vigilant about the sighting of alleged extraterrestrial objects. Authorities in the past considered extraterrestrial objects to be only associated with something in the air. But certain spottings of suspicious items around the water in the last few years have made the government change its tune, Popular Mechanics reported.

After repeated urging by UFO enthusiasts, the government changed the name associated with UFOs from "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" to "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena."

In 1992, multiple people claimed seeing almost 200 disk-shaped objects hovering around Santa Monica Bay waters for some seconds, and then flying off to the sky, Popular Mechanics reported.

"My ship was visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when I saw three strange, big white lights in the water," U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Charles Howard said in his written records. They were "10 or 20 feet on each side with a rounded shape," he added. 

Sightings of such USOs (Unidentified Submerged Objects) have intrigued people for years. UFO enthusiasts in their pursuit were supported by testimonies from several government agents, Popular Mechanics reported.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D. in a published report claimed that USOs were a potential threat to humankind and needed more investigation. Luis Alizondo, who once ran the government’s secret Pentagon unit also agreed that more attention should be given to suspicious objects hovering around several water bodies. 

Before the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, UAP was just associated with aerial objects. The change of name brought forth by the National Defense Authorization Act ushered underwater and trans-medium phenomena into consideration. 

This name change also implied the government's legitimate concern with underwater UFOs, Popular Mechanics reported. Legislators in the 2010s began pressuring authorities to disclose classified UFO reports. This marked a new beginning in the way government bodies like the Pentagon handled UFO investigations.

After decades of instructing officials to keep details regarding UFO sightings a secret, they are now encouraging service members to report unexplained phenomena. 

Navy pilots have reported multiple instances of UFOs and USOs during their voyages, Popular Mechanics reported. In 2021, the Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, a program within the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence to form a standard collection of UFO sightings by their branch.

Office of the Secretary of Defense established the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) intending to integrate and synchronize UFO investigations across all the government bodies. The name change in 2022, directed the Secretary of Defence to go with the name- All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, implying that they were considering suspicious objects in all the mediums.

UAP investigator Mick West stated that available evidence associated with USOs is far less than aerial objects, Popular Mechanics reported. "You can’t see very far underwater, so there’s no video or photos. There are only stories about anomalous sonar returns and occasional sightings that might as well be of sea monsters," he explained. The investigator further added that many popular  USO sightings have been conclusively proven wrong. 

West cited the Puerto Rico "Aguadilla" incident of 2013, in which people claimed to have seen several flying objects moving near the ocean. Rubén Lianza, the head of the Argentinian Air Force’s UAP investigation committee proposed that the flying objects were party lanterns, etc., tied together and parallax illusions.

"The "parallax effect" describes a type of visual illusion in which the position of an object in 3-dimensional space appears to change, due to a shift in the position of the observer," NASA reported.

Lianza's theory was proven by West who analyzed the angle of the camera and concluded that the viewers just saw lanterns rapidly striking over the ocean, and then remerging again from the surface, Popular Mechanics reported.