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The story
In the deep sea roughly 7,000 meters down off the west coast of Australia, researchers have discovered a vast graveyard-like site where the bones of nearly 500 whales have gathered. Reported by National Geographic and picked up via Yahoo! News, the find became a hot topic — most of the bones belong to beaked whales, a group whose ecology remains largely mysterious, with some possibly representing new species, and the oldest bones dating back around 5.3 million years. On 5ch’s Science News+ board, an anthropomorphizing theory that the whales deliberately chose this area as a place to die clashed with a more level-headed theory that the carcasses simply accumulated there due to ocean currents and terrain, and opinions were also split on whether 500 whales over 5 million years counts as “a lot.”
“Whale Graveyard” Discovered 7,000m Deep: An Unusual Scale of Nearly 500 Whales — Why Here?
The Oldest Dates Back About 5.3 Million Years; Most Are Bones of the Mysterious Beaked Whale, With Possible New Species Too
A research team surveying the deep sea off the west coast of Australia by submersible has discovered a vast mass grave made up of the remains of nearly 500 whales.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Sonar operator: "Whale One is about to exceed crush depth…"
Sonar (cont.): "…6,850… 6,900… 6,950… 7,000…"
Whale: "…(KA-BOOM)"
Sonar operator: "Whale One has… imploded…"
Apparently when a whale dies, gas builds up inside its body at first and it floats. The fact that they all end up piled in one spot feels like it's due to ocean currents.
Is this like their designated "end-of-life prep" zone? (shūkatsu — the Japanese practice of getting one's affairs in order before death)
So you're saying even if one dies on the exact opposite side of the planet, it'd still end up here?
By that logic, wouldn't every city across all of Japan count as a graveyard too?
Maybe it's more like a royal tomb.
Oh no! So many intelligent, noble whales lying dead on the seafloor, how tragic! Hurry up and bring them to the surface!
…shouldn't that be the reaction here?
If so, they must have some concept of death, and maybe even religion
and this has apparently continued for about 5 million years…
So I doubt it's a case of them heading toward some kind of landmark on the seafloor.
It's probably more about the effect of slopes and terrain, plus weak deep-sea currents that make things gather there.
you'd expect things other than whales to pile up too.
Since they're specifically saying whales,
that means the whales headed there themselves as a place to die.
Also, even though they're mammals,
unlike humans,
their bodies are built to handle the deep sea, and it's been confirmed they can dive to around 3,000m.
They may be capable of going even deeper than that.
What kind of body structure do they even have?
Japan really has slipped into being a developing country at this point.
is that actually a huge number when you consider how vast the ocean is?
It's just that they were found because it's so deep.
If it were shallower, they'd have decomposed away completely.
Only the unsupported lung cavity would collapse, and for species that exhale before diving, there's no compression at all.
Same with humans — only the rib cage, which lacks rigid support, would collapse. It's not like a deep-sea diver's arms and legs get crushed, right?
With oil prices high and everyone competing for ship time, Japanese research institutions can't run long-distance or large-scale surveys,
and they don't have enough deep-diving submersibles capable of operating at extreme depths either.
All they're doing, on government orders, is playing at resource exploration with no realistic path to commercialization.
Hurry up with the Shinkai 12000.
Background and Key Points of Debate
Most of the bones found this time belong to beaked whales, a group whose ecology is still poorly understood. The research team surveyed the seafloor roughly 7,000 meters deep off the west coast of Australia using a submersible, and the oldest bones date back as far as about 5.3 million years. On the thread, the debate centered on an anthropomorphizing theory that whales deliberately choose this spot as a place to die versus a theory that the bones simply happened to accumulate there due to ocean currents and terrain. Opinions were also split on whether 500 whales over 5 million years should be considered “a lot” or “not a big deal.” There was also a comment claiming the whales “died of decompression sickness,” but this is a misunderstanding — whales dive by collapsing only their lungs, a mechanism entirely different from human-style decompression sickness. The point that bones survive better in the deep sea than in shallower waters, thanks to the low temperature and low oxygen slowing decomposition, is a factor also cited in actual oceanography alongside the current-accumulation theory, so some of the thread’s speculation isn’t far off the mark.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[National Geographic] “Whale Graveyard” Discovered 7,000m Deep, an Unusual Scale of Nearly 500 Whales — Why Here?.”
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