Creatures a sailor saw at sea, creatures you'd never meet on land. I'm telling you all my memories from 10 years.

The orca, its dorsal fin was insane.

The one that left the biggest impact was the orca.

The dorsal fin popping out of the sea surface, it's way bigger than you'd imagine. The intensity is completely different from the orcas you see at an aquarium.

Wild orcas have an extraordinary presence. As the gangsters of the sea standing at the top of the food chain, they have an aura. When I saw one up close, I couldn't help but gasp. It wasn't so much scary as it was overwhelming.

For a while after seeing that, the orca's dorsal fin kept flickering in my mind. Since most sailors are boys at heart, I immediately gave a presentation to everyone, and they all listened with sparkling eyes.

A sea lion waved at me.

This was moving.

A sea lion was swimming near the ship, and the moment it suddenly lifted its head, it raised its front flipper.

It looked like it was waving at me.

I thought, 'Wait, did it just greet me?' and I couldn't help but wave back. Lol

You can't really have the experience of being greeted by a wild animal on land. That moment made me truly happy. It's one of those moments where I thought, 'I'm glad I went out to sea.'

I also see sharks and sunfish regularly.

When you work as a sailor, sharks and sunfish become 'common occurrences.'

I've seen sharks swimming leisurely near the surface many times. It's less about being scared and more like, 'Oh, there it is.' Getting used to things is amazing, isn't it?

The sunfish's unique shape is funny; usually, when I see one from afar, I mistake it for a plastic bag at first, and I laugh a little every time I see it. I think to myself every time, 'I can't believe it can survive with a shape like that.' Try googling why sunfish die; they're way too delicate for living in the wild.

Creatures that make people on land go 'What!?' become a part of daily life on a ship.

Bluefin tuna looked like money flying by.

This might be a perspective unique to me, coming from a fisheries high school.

When I saw a school of bluefin tuna swimming near the surface, the first thing I thought was, 'That's money.' Lol

A single bluefin tuna can be worth millions. And there they were, swimming in a school. I couldn't see them as anything other than a mass of money swimming through the ocean.

If an ordinary person who isn't a fisherman or a sailor saw this, they'd probably be moved, but all I saw was money. Maybe it's an occupational hazard. Haha.

I was shocked to see a dead deer.

This was the incident that made me go, 'Wait, what!?' the most.

I saw a dead deer on the ocean.

You're probably wondering, 'Why is there a deer in the ocean!?' I thought the same thing. It must have been washed out from somewhere, but I never expected to see a deer on the sea, so my heart nearly stopped.

It wasn't a living creature, but a dead one, yet I can't forget that shock. It was the moment I realized the ocean has everything.

The ocean is a treasure trove of living things.

After 10 years of being on a ship, what I think is that the ocean really is full of all kinds of creatures.

Orcas, sea lions, sharks, sunfish, bluefin tuna, and even a deer.

The ocean holds unexpected encounters. That's one of the interesting things about being a sailor.

You never know what will appear next, so the ocean never gets boring.