WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A WHALE DIES IN THE OCEAN ? : WHALE FALL - NOURISHING AN ENTIRE ECOSYSTEM

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM : UK : WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WHALES DIE 

Excerpt:

Whale carcasses take decades to fully decompose and can provide food for an entire ecosystem on the dark depths of the ocean floor. ...Decay sets in soon after the death of a whale, as the insides begin to decompose. The animal then expands with gas and sometimes floats up to the ocean's surface, where it can be scavenged by sharks and seabirds.

Eventually the ocean giant will begin to sink, falling kilometre after kilometre, until finally coming to rest on the seabed. This is when the carcass becomes known as a whale fall.

Whale falls can nourish an entire ecosystem of deep-sea creatures, from large scavengers to microscopic bacteria. They provide inhabitants of the mostly deserted ocean floor with a sudden and immense source of food...

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Keep reading!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A WHALE DIES BEACHED? THIS IS KINDA GROSS! THEY CAN EXPLODE!

This is an older article from the Guardian in September 2022

GUARDIAN : ENVIRONMENT : WHALE STRANDINGS : WHAT HAPPENS TO DEAD WHALE BODIES?

Excerpt: Two mass strandings in Tasmanian waters in a week has left about 200 pilot whales and 14 sperm whales dead. ... In warmer climates, the internal decomposition of dead whales can result in spontaneous explosions. Gut bacteria in the whales can multiply quickly, producing large quantities of methane gas. “If the rest of the body is still intact – if the outer layer, the blubber, is still intact and not broken up – then it can lead to an explosion,” Meynecke said.

In 2004, the decomposing carcass of a 60-tonne, 17-metre sperm whale expoded on a busy streetin the Taiwanese city of Tainan, “showering cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours”. ...

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Check out the video of the whale stomach exploding! Ewwwe!

HILTON HEAD BEACHED SPERM WHALE : WHALE HELP

ISLAND PACKET :HILTON HEAD BEACHED SPERM WHALE

Excerpt: Like the beached whale on Hilton Head Island, live whales usually only beached themselves if they’re sick, injured, or in otherwise poor health. One common cause of sickness is when the whale ingests marine debris, especially plastic. Whales can get entangled in fishing gear or get struck by boats. Sperm whales are an endangered species, and about four of them strand themselves on beaches across the Atlantic coast per year. George said there has been some increase in the number of whales washing up over the years, but it’s not known whether that’s due to an increase in sperm whale populations or an increase to the threats they face. Lentz said the average person can help endangered whales by making conscientious choices about the food they eat and the products the buy, and picking up their garbage on the beach.

If you see a stranded or injured marine animal, do not push it back into the ocean, as biologists say it will likely wash up again somewhere else. Instead, call (877) WHALE-HELP to report the animal to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

ORCA WHALE WITH PLASTIC BAG IN MOUTH : OUR OCEAN ECOLOGY

LIVE SCIENCE : ORCA WITH PLASTIC BAG IN MOUTH ARTICLE

LIVE SCIENCE : ORCA SPOTTED WITH PLASTIC BAG IN MOUTH .

MY CONCERNS OVER PLASTIC POLLUTION GROW... link here! .

One group of researchers recently published a database of trash on the seafloor from California to Canada and offshore of Hawaii. They found that most garbage in their count was plastic, and of those items, more than half were plastic bags, some choking corals nearly 7,000 feet (2,115 meters) below.

PILOT WHALES BEACHED ON FAREWELL SPIT NEW ZEALAND

Farewell Spit is another New Zealand Beach where whales, this time 99 of them, beached themselves. This is the news as of January 26th, written by Dominique Schwartz, of ABC news.

The animals are being put down (euthanized) because rescuers cannot get them to move. About 17 of them made it back to the sea. 33 of them tried but re-beached themselves elsewhere.

DO WHALES BEACH THEMSELVES TO COMMIT SUICIDE : 61 BEACHED IN NEW ZEALAND

Brian Palmer of the site Slate, has done a fine job of writing about the 61 whales who beached themselves on Opoutere Beach in New Zealand last November. You may have been watching the news about other whales that have beached themselves. Usually whale loving volunteers show up to drench them with water, to try and keep them alive until the tide comes in. Once beached it is very difficult to move a whale. Even the whale has trouble moving on land. It's not their natural environment.

"Is suicide a thing in the animal kingdom?
Sort of. There is plenty of evidence that animals engage in self-destructive behavior."

This article focuses on the science...