Freaque wave in the lab tank

Here's an interesting article from here (the phys.org):

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have used a Lego pirate floating in a fish tank to demonstrate for the first time that so-called ‘super rogue waves’ can come from nowhere in apparently calm seas and engulf ships.

The article completes with a video on the lab demonstration.

Using a scientific fish tank, a wave generator and a Lego man on a ship floating on the water surface, the scientists were able to demonstrate that rogue waves much bigger than previously thought can occur. The team have labelled these ‘super rogue waves’, as they can be up to five times bigger than the other waves around them.

It's certainly interesting to watch.  But the nagging question remains: Where does it lead to the events in the real ocean out there?  Here's the paper's answer:

“Of course, in real oceans the problem will require more careful analysis, but we expect the result to have a significant impact on the studies of extreme ocean waves and more generally, extreme events in nature and society.”

Now here's a further question: how much do we really know about what's happening in the real ocean beyond speculation?  We can produce freaque waves in the laboratory tank.  But how was the freaque waves in the real ocean generated ?!?