Rosebud Whale Fall

sketchfab

This is the photogrammetric reconstruction of a whale fall deliberately submerged off San Diego, California. A Fin Whale, 23 meters in length and carrying an unborn calf at the time, met its demise when struck by a passing cargo ship in 2011. The impact shattered her spine, claiming both her life and that of her unborn offspring. Researchers subsequently retrieved her carcass from a beach and towed it out to sea, where they used nearly eight tons of steel weights to deliberately sink it. Rosebud's remains provide an ideal setting for scientists to study the organisms and bacteria responsible for breaking down organic matter at the ocean floor. Several thriving red Osedax communities (bone-eating worms) continue to inhabit her bones nearly a decade after she was submerged.