Whale fall appreciation post
This October, researchers on the Expedition Vessel Nautilus got a spooky treat when they were exploring the deep waters of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary:
When a whale dies at sea, its body sinks to the seafloor. There, it’s known as a whale fall. Whale falls serve as an important food source for animals from large sharks to small worms, and can feed communities for years to decades (!).
This whale fall is estimated to have been on the seafloor for about four months. Researchers spotted Muusoctopus octopuses, eel pouts, crabs, and other animals feeding.
They also saw many small Osedax worms (the reddish fuzzy-looking stuff on the GIFs below). These worms dissolve the bone to consume the fats within it.
(The green dots you see in these GIFs are lasers that help researchers tell the size of objects they’re looking at. The dots are 10 centimeters apart.)
This whale fall was spotted at a depth of 10,623 feet on the flank of Davidson Seamount, an underwater mountain off the coast of California. The whale skeleton is lying on its back and is an estimated 13 to 16 feet in length. We’re not sure what species it is yet, but it’s definitely a baleen whale (some of the baleen still remains).
Check out our video to see more of the whale fall, and to hear the scientists’ delight in finding it:
[GIFs credited to OET/NOAA. They show various views of the whale fall. The first two show the full whale skeleton in a pool of light; many octopuses and fish surround the skeleton. The second two GIFs show closer views of octopuses and fish feeding on the skeleton.]
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