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posted by janrinok on Friday August 05 2016, @04:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the davy-jones-locker dept.

Even the biggest living creatures sometimes die quietly and slip unnoticed to their rest. A giant whale might have done just that if not for the crew of the research vessel Nautilus. They spotted the whale's mostly complete skeleton decomposing off the California coast on Monday.

"Coming across a natural whale fall is pretty uncommon," one of the researchers says in a video posted to YouTube. A "whale fall" is the rather romantic phrase used when a whale's carcass sinks to the ocean floor, where it provides a buffet bonanza for smaller sea creatures.

"The whale skeleton can support rich communities for years to decades, both as a hard substrate (or surface) for invertebrate colonization and as a source of sulfides from the decay of organic compounds of whale bones," the National Ocean Service explains on its site. "Microbes live off of the energy released from these chemical reactions and form the basis of ecosystems for as long as the food source lasts.


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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Friday August 05 2016, @04:45AM

    by Arik (4543) on Friday August 05 2016, @04:45AM (#384383) Journal
    Just as long as those communities are non-human, did I get the line right?
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @05:40AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @05:40AM (#384390)

    This is what's wrong with America today. There was a fresh carcass [stltoday.com] but because of excessive government regulations [fox5sandiego.com] people weren't allowed to salvage it. It was towed to sea repeatedly, floated from Los Angeles almost to San Diego, and was buried in a landfill [encinitasadvocate.com]. Spectacular example of bureaucratic inefficiency!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @06:04AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @06:04AM (#384393)

      So why didn't you have your lawyer write up an agreement waiving your right to sue if you die from eating salvaged whale meat?

    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday August 05 2016, @08:39AM

      by davester666 (155) on Friday August 05 2016, @08:39AM (#384424)

      Yeah, they totally needed to blow the carcass up, just the way they did in the good old days. That way, you get the spectacle of the actual blowing-up event, followed by the weeks of discussion about whales (namely, "what the hell is that smell?"), a good variety of different sizes of whale bits spread over the general vicinity for scavengers of all sizes.

      And yes, that old video of them blowing up that whale still makes me laugh. Especially the running at the end.

      Now it's just a waste, taking up space in a landfill.

      • (Score: 1) by anubi on Friday August 05 2016, @09:00AM

        by anubi (2828) on Friday August 05 2016, @09:00AM (#384428) Journal

        Cat Food!

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday August 05 2016, @04:13PM

          by Jeremiah Cornelius (2785) on Friday August 05 2016, @04:13PM (#384513) Journal

          Take them down to the riverside
          And throw them over the side
          To be swept up by a current
          And taken to the ocean
          To be eaten by some fishes
          Who were eaten by some fishes
          And swallowed by a whale
          Who grew so old
          He decomposed
          He died and left his body
          To the bottom of the ocean
          Now everybody knows
          That when a body decomposes
          The basic elements
          Are given back to the ocean
          And the sea does what it oughta
          And soon there's salty water
          (That's not too good for drinking)
          'Cause it tastes just like a teardrop

          --
          You're betting on the pantomime horse...