The oceans are vast, beautiful, and full of cute animals

For this week’s installment of cute animals that distract you from Every Bad Thing Happening in the World Right Now, we’re going diving into the deep blue places of planet Earth in search of some adorable swimming creatures. My crushing thalassophobia (fear of deep water) keeps me on dry land, so I am extremely thankful to modern science for the intrepid explorers and sophisticated waterproof recording equipment that allow me to experience the majesty of adorable sea life from the comfort of my couch.

I love following the adventures of the Exploration Vessel Nautilis, because they send remotely operated vehicles down to the ocean floor and livestream whatever happens to float by. If you’re really lucky, you can catch a cute critter, such as this Flapjack Octopus. Maxing out at a petite eight inches, these charming cephalopods fall under the category of “umbrella octopus” because their tentacles are fused together into one big, adorable parachute.

With a name like Sea Bunny, you know that our next animal will probably appear fluffy and long-eared. You’d be right, but you also might be surprised to know that it’s a member of the scandalous-sounding nudibranch family. These marine slugs are typically just an inch long, with their dual tentacles and fuzzy-looking surface acting as a way to both chemically sense their environment and cosplay as a swimming baby rabbit. Don’t touch them, as they are likely to be highly poisonous, but do look up many videos to revel in the wide variety of bright colors that different species exhibit.

Sometimes being very small is enough on its own to qualify an animal as super cute. The Long-spine Porcupinefish can grow to the size of a beach ball, but upon hatching out of their eggs the wee spiky things are smaller than a fingernail. Like pufferfish, this kind of ocean-going creature has a defense of self-inflation to intimidate predators. Although if this tiny critter puffed up to twice its normal size, it would probably just be twice as cute.

A turtle made it to the water! I recommend watching this video on mute and adding your own voiceover, where each and every one of these Green Sea Turtles successfully navigates the treacherous path from sand to ocean and lives a long, full turtle life. Bonus points will be awarded for accurate impressions of David Attenborough’s calming narration.