Cookiecutter.

This is coolbert:

Put this one in the strange but true category.

The little shark that could.

The cookiecutter shark! [yes, cookiecutter all as one word]

Able to disable a nuclear submarine with a single bite!! And WHEN A FULLY GROWN ADULT ABOUT THE SIZE OF A DOMESTIC CAT!!

Thanks to Jeff and Zen-Haven  the story of the cookiecutteer most amazing.

"This Tiny Shark Can Take Out Nuclear Submarines"

"The cat-sized shark . . . doesn’t look that intimidating, but it has the power to take down an entire nuclear submarine. The fish’s strange bite can get at the softer areas of the submarines"

"The fearless cookie-cutters have even disabled the most dangerous ocean creature of all—the nuclear submarine. They attacked exposed soft areas including electrical cables and rubber sonar domes. In several cases, the attacks effectively blinded the subs"

"The attacks happened in the 1970s and the problem seems to have been taken care of, though in several cases the sharks did enough damage to the vessel’s sonar equipment that the oils inside that transmit sound would leak out of the ship and break the equipment — the subs could no longer see what was around them"

This problem has been fixed a long time ago. Those sonar housings receiving a: "fibreglass covering"

"The cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis), also called the cigar shark, is a species of small dogfish shark in the family Dalatiidae. This shark occurs in warm, oceanic waters worldwide, particularly near islands, and has been recorded from as deep as 3.7 km (2.3 mi). It migrates vertically up to 3 km (1.9 mi) every day, approaching the surface at dusk and descending with the dawn."

That cookiecutter dwelling in the abysmal depths [10,000 feet/3,500 meters] during the daytime, ascending to near the surface to feed during hours of darkness. A voracious feeder and not above attacking and taking chunks out of animals much larger than itself. The cookiecutter must think the sub is a whale?

American nuclear submarines when submerged "observing" their surroundings PRIMARILY BY LISTENING WITH PASSIVE SONAR RATHER THAN PINGING THE OCEAN REPEATEDLY IN AN ACTIVE MANNER TO "SEE". Loss of sonar means a total loss of ability to accomplish a mission? Must be so!

coolbert.