Whale fall Explained

A whale fall feeds the deep ocean for decades.

A whale fall is a carcass resting on the seafloor.

Ocean waves break near a rocky coastal shore.

Cold water and high pressure keep the carcass intact.

Hagfish and sleeper sharks consume the carcass efficiently.

Osedax worms excrete acid to erode the whale bones.

Bacteria turn bone sulfides into energy for other creatures.

Mussels and clams harvest chemicals instead of sunlight.

Researchers estimate 690,000 whale skeletons exist right now.

Skeletons average 12 kilometers apart along migration routes.

Larvae can swim from one whale fall to another.

A single carcass holds about 2 tonnes of carbon.

That equals 2,000 years of normal deep-sea carbon flux.