7 Dec 2022 #whale #marinebiology #18786
Sometimes whales explode… a marine biologist reacts and explains the science of what happens when whales die.
00:00 – Exploding Whale Oregon
03:22 – Why Whales Blow Up
04:41 – Whale Falls
06:36 – How Big Are Whales?
07:34 – New Species Discovered at Whale Fall Sites
07:54 – Commercial Whaling
08:15 – Save the Whales
CORRECTION: The whale fall video attributed to Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen was part of the 2019 E/V Nautilus Expedition of the Davidson Seamount in NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary:
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/w…
Whales are bigger than the dinosaurs. Their bodies provide massive amounts of nutrients and resources to thousands of different species. Beached whales will be quickly consumed by polar bears, seagulls, and even microscopic bacteria.
In warmer climates, the bacteria inside a whale washed up on shore will multiply and create unstable amounts of methane gas. If the skin and blubber is intact then this methane will expand the whale like a balloon until it explodes.
However, beached whales are rare. Unlike most animals, great whales like blue whales and humpback whales are denser than seawater so they quickly sink to the sea floor once their lungs deflate. The amount of organic material reaching the ocean floor in a single whale sinks creates something known as a biological pulse… the carcass then provides a sudden, concentrated food source and creates an ‘island’ of organic matter, supporting diverse marine biological communities. At least 30 new species of deep sea creatures have been discovered at whale fall sites!
The importance of these whale falls is a relatively recent discovery. It wasn’t until the late 1970s, after the development of deep-sea robotic exploration, that researchers first visited and monitored whale fall sites. Such as when the remotely operated underwater vehicle, the ROV
ROV Hercules, explored the waters of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and found a whale fall that had become an entire ecosystem teeming with deep sea creatures like eels and octopus!
KATU original video of when the Oregon Department of Transportation blew up a whale:
• The Exploding Whale: An infamous moment in…
Whale Fall Ecosystems:
[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar…
[2] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/w…
[3] https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/earthisb…
[4] https://phys.org/news/2009-09-species…
Exploding Whale Stories:
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-can…
[2] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk…
[3] https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weir…
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/200…
Whales are Bigger Than the Dinosaurs:
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/how-ear…
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Music
Cody Martin
Soundstripe.com
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