The whirpools - never witnessed before - would suck down ships, debris and even living creatures, moving 1.3 million cubic metres of water per second.
Two of the black holes - or “maelstroms” - have been sighted in three months by physicists from Zurich and Miami.
The powerful vortices of current have been described as ‘maelstroms’ and are ‘mathematical analogues’ for black holes – which is to say they do exactly the same with water that black holes do with light.
The discovery could give new insights into how oceanic currents transport debris and may even have implications for climate change studies.
