Where Did the Fishman From "The Shape of Water" Actually Come From? Marine Biologist Reacts!

Take a shot every time I say "parts per thousand."
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And thanks for watching our video "Where Did the Fishman From 'The Shape of Water' Actually Come From? Marine Biologist Reacts!"

[@lucasjuliard4929]

Perhaps the fish man comes from a brine pool. It's basically an underwater river/lake of highly salty sea water. So salty that any marine life dies when entering it (I think it's about three to height times saltier than the surrounding waters). It's also found at very deep depth in the ocean so that would explain why he'd need to be pressurised and also why he got glowing spots on his scales!

[@demonkingzecksee]

legit nice theory

[@jchabon]

YOOOO

[@Devo14218]

I love the fish man actor! He plays monsters for Del Toro all the time.

[@faesommers]

Doug Jones is unironically my favorite actor, I met him at a Comic-Con on my birthday one time!

[@kemmli]

Doug Jones is also my favorite actor lol

[@skybluskyblueify]

Maybe the reason for the jerk saying the fishman came from the Amazon is because of his low regard for any geography besides some of the U.S. and the cities we'd bomb for the USSR. So the only source of water he knows the name of in South America is the Amazon?

[@Some_Really_Random_Dude.]

This makes more sense than it should.

[@davidegaruti2582]

So unreliable narrator ...

[@benmcreynolds8581]

Can you please cover deep sea brine pools? Oh also, the surprising flourishing ecosystem in the freezing waters under Antarctica. I saw the water can stay a fluid there due to it's salinity and then there is creatures that have antifreeze and white blood in their bodies, ice fish. It's so cool that they are finding and exploring/mapping newly discovered bodies of water that are under the ice in land on the continent of Antarctica. Some are nearly completely isolated from other bodies of water and contain flourishing biodiversity that is just starting to get researched about. It's just cool to learn such vibrant abundance resides with in the Antarctic oceans. When I was a kid I didn't know if that was possible?

[@captaindemobeard9560]

I always thought "Shape of Water" was a loose sequel to "The Creature from the Black Lagoon". It also explains how the fishman could be the same one who got shot over and over again and supposedly died in the first film. Because he gets shot in this film too and gets up like nothing happened.

[@zairac2564]

The 'nearest' brine pool I could locate in a few minutes of searching is Cariaco Basin off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean. It's a scant 2000 km trip to the Amazon Delta. I suppose he might make the trip for humani- er um fishmanitarian purposes maybe once a year. He probably would hold up okay in the 3.5% salinity Atlantic for a while, but the Amazon itself would be rough on him. Maybe the people there give him salt pools and understand him and his needs and that's why he's friends with them and not other people. Plus, he probably knows of some salt domes or other hypersaline rest stops that us surface breathers wouldn't know since we're not locals. Maybe I'm just making excuses because I love that movie, but it wouldn't be the worst migratory path ever.

[@KrazyKaiser]

Doug Jones is an INCREDIBLE actor, he's legendary for his costume monster, including ( as you mentioned) abe sapien from Hellboy, who is theoretically the son of the fish man in shape of water, which is why abe is less monstrous than his father, he's half human. Doug also plays The Pale Man from Pan's labyrinth.

[@sabinekine2737]

But Abe Sapien has an origin story already. Sapien began his life as Langdon Everett Caul, a Victorian scientist and businessman who became involved with the Oannes Society, an occult organization who believed in life and all knowledge having come from the sea. After retrieving a strange jellyfish-like deity from an underwater ruin, Caul and the other members performed an arcane ritual that inadvertently ended with the creature's release and Caul being turned into an ichthyo sapien. Believing him to be Oannes reborn, the society sealed the developing icthyo sapien's body in a tube of water in the hidden laboratory beneath a Washington, D.C. hospital until such time as he was fully formed. Forced to abandon the site by the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Society never found occasion to return for Caul, and there he stayed until he was found by workmen in November 1978.

[@vailed7]

So I was watching this video again and had a random thought… What about brine pools? Not only are they saltier than the regular ocean but they are also at the bottom of the ocean usually which would account for the pressure thing. Anyway I enjoy your sense of humor. Your videos make me smile and laugh while being educated which is just the best and most unique combination. Thanks for making these.

[@petersmythe6462]

Clearly either an emdorheic lake or a deep sea brine pool. Or its biology is weird and they're keeping it at 5-8% salinity even though that's not the salinity of its environment because it can partially compensate for something that is part of its environment more effectively than trying to replicate that thing.

[@GuiSmith]

I’d always thought the fish man came from a lagoon, and it is exceptionally salty like a salt lake because of evaporation and how water only flows into it occasionally when the tides line up, making it into a brine pool of sorts. It’s also possible he’s from slightly deeper in the ocean normally but can survive in briny lagoon conditions (until it dries up, anyway, hence why he was dug out of mud). Given he’s pretty much a creature from the black _lagoon,_ I think a lagoon explains him pretty well.

[@misspoppyseed3909]

I suppose the pressure comment could be in reference to how saltwater pressure is slightly different due to freshwater pressure because of the added chemicals? The density of the water in a water column changes slightly depending on whether the water is fresh or salt, and presumably other heavier elements such as lead when dissolved from a crystalline form could change the pressure of the water the deeper one goes and the more concentrated it becomes. Presumably they need to pressurise him because the mixture of the chemicals added to the water makes the liquid denser at depth when compared to fresh water? And pulling him up to land would depressurise him faster than if he was taken from a freshwater depth?

[@KrazyKaiser]

I like how you were freaking out over water that was 40-50 ppt, but then when you are talking about hypersaline lakes you pretty casually say "400 ppt" like that isn't ten time higher than the number you were freaking out about before. I had to go back and listen again to be like "wait, did she say *400*??"

[@NovaSaber]

Well, some of those lakes are nearly lifeless and a couple of the most extreme ones (where the temperature, salinity, and acidity are ALL high) are even completely lifeless.

[@wangeroogerque2931]

I would like to know if the boiled eggs have a biological reason in these movie, like there are some specific chemicals or proteins in them, or if Doug Jones just likes boiled eggs.

[@Aettaro]

Suddenly I want to know the salinity level of the brine pools in the deep sea. Obviously that isn't the Amazon or even South America, but I wonder what the salinity levels are in those pools. Could they match the salinity level of the fish-man's requirements?

[@184thearchitect2]

i like to think that the government was delibrately trying to hurt him, so which is why they kept him in such absurd conditions

[@Cdre_Satori]

Here is me, making you aware that I said "dead sea " and "Salt lakes" dozen times which is weird because only hearing about that high salinity my tongue got dry remembering tasting the sea.

[@johnm1008]

It is amazing to me that *The* Octopus Lady doesn't know where The Fish Man is from. One would think that they could be neighbors.

[@OpEditorial]

He's the creature from the Green Lagoon (Laguna Verde) as opposed to the Black Lagoon.

[@elinobenjamin]

This was ridiculously entertaining tysm

[@pippinbloom]

Really enjoyed this. You are great at explaining things I would never have been interested in a compelling way. I love your brain!

[@cuellarlopez]

You actually pronounced his name right, with the hard R and the "o" sound.

[@commoncourtesy5547]

Also they just took a bunch of origin stuff from Creature From The Black Lagoon like the "deep dark amazon" stuff. The references are obvious but they just pulled the orgin from that and added all the saltwater stuff for complexity

[@oleandy]

this was a wonderful surprise to find! shape of water is my favourite movie, and i love your videos, so this was so nice to watch. looking forward to your next one :)

[@daviddougherty5714]

Great. I'm never going to be able to unsee that fish cake bowl.

[@geeegaewlwlwll9328]

its a bit unprompted but i think you might enjoy a novel 'amphibian man' by alexander beliaev if you liked shape of water! i havent reread it since childhood but from what i remember it focuses a lot on marine life through the eyes of the titular amphibian man and he also falls in love with a human woman and gets captured and escapes

[@notemaker3000]

For april fools one year, make a brine video... but then its about pickling.

[@haole08067]

I love the irony that you took cinema sins so literally instead of just the entertainment it's meant to be.

[@riven9179]

Film theory who!? This is so good I loved this

[@myaschaefer6597]

Your vids are so sooo fun, but you took this one to a whole new level! Keep having fun, and let it show in your videos.😊🤩

[@soupstoreclothing]

i'm sorry this video didn't get as many views as your others! i really enjoyed it and hope you make more like it in the future

[@gregc8831]

Oh don't mind Mr cinema sins, he's constantly making stretches to appease his sin counter or it may devour him.

[@Dick_Gozinya]

Just looking at the Fishman, I'd have to guess he came from The Black Lagoon.

Goddamn, I'm so glad I'm not the only weirdo in love with Doug Jones fishman movements.

[@louisvictor3473]

There is a cheap copout answer for him, is that he comes from a hypothetical heretofore undiscovered (i.e. I made it up, but made it plausible via lack of evidence to the contrary) underground salt lake somewhere in South America. This would explain the pressure and bioluminescence imo, as well as the high salt concentration, and the fact he is obviously such a mysterous being. I would even dare say, he even look like a cavern system species to me, but that might be a stretch (I am trying to keep it plausible, but am still making this up, after all).

[@pietrosigismondodelvalenti6371]

All this time I thought the fish man came from the Hellboy universe. Turns out he was actually from the black lagoon. TY Octopus Lady! Doug Jones did such a good job, it's a shame he's been typecast.

[@andylee3114]

This reminded me of Neil deGrasse Tyson nerding out on astronomy stuff in movies, but more fun. I wasn't much interested in The Shape of Water when it came out (no particular reason, just kind of a Green Eggs and Ham thing on my part), but now I want to see it.

[@josh2011miller80]

Thank you for making this video. I love this movie!

[@brandonkoh8361]

When he says 3% - 8%, he could mean 5% - 8% of maximum water salinity, kinda like how humidity works. Going off max salinity of pure sodium chloride in water which is 360ppt, it puts the salinity at 18 - 28.8 ppt, which is very much within the almost to the sea to sea water range. If we're going off maximum salinity found in nautre, which is roughly 443 (I think), it puts the salt range at 22.15 - 35.44ppt, also around the same range and includes average sea water salinity.

[@nazarostrovsky_]

“Ocean man, take me by the hand Lead me to the land that you understand Ocean man, the voyage to the corner of the globe Is a real trip Ocean man, the crust of a tan man imbibed by the sand Soaking up the thirst of the land”

[@mre7973]

For starters, how did you overlook brine pools!!! One of the coolest natural phenomena in the ocean in my personal opinion. Making things like undersea lakes and even undersea waterfalls! Secondly don't you talk down on CinemaSins. They're doing this for fun and because it's interesting just like you, they just go about it using a different method! Back onto the Brine Pools, almost everything can be explained that way. There ARE undersea brine pools off the East coast of South America and they are at depth which explains the need for pressurization. There are also several aquatic/amphibian species that spend most of their life in fresh/salt water respectively and then move to a drastically different environment to spawn. This of course would explain him being found in the amazon river and being worshipped by the locals there. He would be a rare occurrence, following his instincts to reproduce there at the risk of his life and interacting with the locals as he waits for a mate that may never appear, only to be swooped up by Dr Douche. Brine pools also can have other heavier elements dissolved into them which may prove toxic to other marine species which can explain the green crystals being added to the water. There, done. Not even a marine biologist and i just solved the movie's puzzle on the origins of the monster!

[@zzampelli4931]

You could literally describe paint drying and i feel like it would still be funny and entertaining

[@anonomooose]

My man lives in a brine pool

[@cairotatum2077]

Woah great video

[@Segafishy]

Makes me wonder, is he secretly the true vision of a Sea Monkey, afterall he's more like the illistrations, likes in a high Salinity enviorment and likes his water murky.

[@geekdivaherself]

It sounded like she said at the end, "Tuna next time...." ❤😊

[@leviathanmcdermott1310]

I love your vids sm! Please keep it up:)

[@batmorrigan7616]

could be from somewhere deep underwater that has more salt, and got stuck in the river bc deep sea fishing or global warming or something

[@charitygrames6443]

Love this one too but do more video's like the bloop u had my rollin😂😂😂😂😂

[@calenk8569]

omg hellboy yes

[@CloverDaBunni]

This video is a year old?! How did I not see it!

[@joshuawayneyork]

More like Guillermo Del "Snore-O"😂

[@bryanmann1017]

the cake bit got me crackin

[@3xplicit283]

7:58 - 8:10 this is my favorite quote of you

[@awwastor]

Deep sea brine pools / and or currents? Rivers?

[@trilobite3120]

9:46 **insert doctor doofenshmirtz meme**

[@claudiahayes6256]

You activated the Google on my phone when you said hey Google😂 HOWWWW even! I don't think our voices are THAT similar 😅😅

[@Hei1Bao4]

Hollywood physics can be very jarring when it comes to suspension of disbelief. The less you know about reality the more enjoyable movies are in that regard. Like "saving" someone from being hit by a bus moving at 5 mph while flying at 100 mph to move them off to the sidewalk. The brain will splatter up against the inside of your skull being moved like that, just for starters. Never mind the bus.

[@bakudeavor]

he was just having a hot girl summer i think

[@victoriajeanleslie3116]

What about brine pools. The pressurisation makes sense at least

[@ramonsanchez6903]

There's lake Cave and Ocean Biome Systems on Land Underground Lakes Caves and Oceans Biomes in and under the Crust and Mantel

[@Thaumh]

Quite aside from Doug playing both, I'm convinced Shape's fishman is related to Abe Sapien. Cousins maybe. Or else as close as a Human is to a 'Squatch.

[@dexteroo101]

Fun video!

[@theravenkid3634]

Wow I didn't know you worked in a aquarium!

[@vladlu6362]

Y'all are getting too hung up on the actor saying "percent". % is the symbol for percent. ‰ is the symbol for ppt (permil). Not many people seem to know about this, and probably only the writer/s knew. Do y'all really think that producers and the cast would know the difference? This looks like the actor either did not know or misspoke, and no one actually paid any attention. 5-8‰ is perfectly acceptable for a river dwelling fish-man, especially on the amazon river. As for the green salts? No idea, but salt comes in many different colours and that things could also very well be algae powder to feed his zooplankton skin. Occam's razor, everyone :)

[@sciencenerd7639]

what if he is from a brine pool?

[@khoufuk]

When you menrioned pressurizing him, I was expecting sea brine pools.

[@SianaRepmad]

"I see that cake.....fish cake" 🤣

[@katjosephperez8772]

I haven’t watched this video for weeks bc of the following (so I wrote it out). This movie made me wildly uncomfortable. My dad, mom, brother, and I rented it. Despite all of us being adults, the sex stuff was tooooooooo much. Her egg-timer morning routine, Michael Shannon doing his wife, and then horrifically MICHAEL SHANNON DOING HIS WIFE WHILE COVERING HER MOUTH WITH HIS ROTTING FINGERS 🤢 It really could’ve been just the scene with the fishman and main character in that flooded bathroom. Maybe just one of her egg-timer routines. There was so much to that movie, but all I can think about or remember is Michael Shannon’s rotting fingers, which his wife had to complain about the smell. AND THEN HE PUT HIS OOZING GREEN FINGERS OVER HER MOUTH AND PROCEEDED TO BANG.

[@sabinekine2737]

Maybe he's an Itcthyo Sapien? Played by the same actor, in a movie directed by the same director. Sure, Mike Mignola originally created him in 1994, but still. Abe Sapien was turned into a fish man by a jellyfish deity found in an underwater ruin.

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

What about deep sea high salinity pools?

[@matthewnardin7304]

What about brine pools? Ppt in those is pretty close right?

[@laurapomeroy7341]

The creature from the black lagoon was trying to help the woman!

[@weezwendel]

Idk alot about salinity but (I’m judging by fresh water fish hospital tanks) what if the fish man was sick and they had to raise the salt level to keep him healthy

[@samfish2550]

Ooh, fun. I love applying real life biology to fictional creatures.

[@vaivideoarchive05]

how do you only have 11 comments

[@OpheliaTerat]

I really liked this movie, but ngl the inconsistencies did kinda bother me even though I know it doesn't matter in the story. Also, I don't care what anyone says, that fish man is pretty hot.

[@PotooBurd]

Good fish movie 🌻

[@Lambda_Ovine]

I will not be afraid to admit it. The fishman is obviously hot. The *man* in fishman does a lot of heavy lifting. A lot

[@raeraebadfingers]

That fish cake tho

[@JoaoLima-rc6sd]

Couldn’t been from a brine pool?

[@eila2635]

Wouldn't that be speculative biology, not necessarily Media Analysis?

[@serasniketa9128]

I’m here for salinity. Let’s go!

[@CaspiRose99]

A plot hole doesn't always make something a bad movie but it is inherently bad writing. Sure most people will gloss over it and won't notice but there will always be someone who does. I love reading and a plot hole doesn't always ruin a book or a movie but a plot hole is just that a plot hole. Basically any plot hole that isn't important to the plot is forgivable.

[@CookieCutterSucks47]

HEY THIS IS PROBABLY DUMB AND GOING THRU THE MOVIE A LITTLE TO MUCH BUT DO YOU THINK WHEN HE SAID AMAZON IT WAS A REFERENCE TO THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON?

[@Sarappreciates]

I love this video, it should be a companion to the movie. If only Universal would take The Shape of Water approach to their silver screen monster movie remakes...!

[@abagoffrozenspinach]

❤

[@jennifercarriger6168]

Ok don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers. Does this mean fish man dies because they released him into the ocean which is not salty enough to keep him alive?

[@robinlayley4758]

Brine rivers or lacks

[@moorflower4118]

👌

[@Maric18]

maaaybe 5ppt?

[@Goofybespitenothavinganyfish]

Doug jones my beloved

[@santoast24]

Ok Im way late to the party but I DONT CARE OK HERES MY THEORY FUCK I JUST READ THE COMMENTS OF THIS 2 YEAR VIDEO PEOPLE ALREADY SAID BRINE POOLS damnit alright Anyway love your content, defenitly my favourite Marine Biologist

[@nurgleGurgell]

7:21 and it also has abs and buttcheeks

[@alexgowin5585]

I loved this video and I do love the message at the end, but I wouldn't take Cinema Sins too seriously. Their whole platform is based on stupid little things like that and is just supposed to be funny.

[@KrazyKaiser]

While what you are doing here is *technically* media analysis, it's more along the lines of speculative evolution work, which is much less pretentious than "real" media analysis. (Not that I don't watch a TON of video essays about movies and TV) It's also funny that you mention how cool his bio-luminescence is, but don't factor that into your speculation of his origin. To me, those traits imply a very deep ocean origin, as that's where the majority of bio-luminescent creatures are from.

[@antimonyparanoia]

I mean, it doesnt ruin the movie for my but it is annoying. All the little suspension of disbelief incongruities are really tough for me to ignore and i dont like it. I get it, there is a fish man, why do i care about if the salinity of the lake he came from is accurate but i just do. I dont want to care about it but its annoying anyway. Idk why

[@Camopartykei]

P r e s s u r i z e

[@reallybig4868]

Oh great. Oo now if I'm getting a handy from a sea creature they're going to be able to know I'm not really into it. Awesome. *frantically pens memo to other marine biologlists "Stop. Screwing. Fish."*