Mike John, Content Explorer, MCA, Los Angeles, California, USA
Answered Mar 05, 2019
A whale fall can last over 100 years. The decomposition of a whale fall happens in stages.
The first stage takes about 2 years. The process begins with scavengers like sleeper sharks and hagfish that consume the soft tissue from the carcass.
The consumption rate of the carcass can be up to 50 kilograms a day.
The second stage also takes about 2 years where organisms that colonize bones and sediment around that have been contaminated with the organic matter from the carcass and other tissues left by the scavenger organisms.
The last stage takes about 50 to 100 years. Bacteria break down the lipids embedded in the bones of the carcass.
