Watch what happens to a dead pig at the bottom of the ocean. Most of the action involves sea lice, but there is a special guest appearance by a fan favorite at the end.
Nov 29 2012
Burial at sea
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39 comments
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Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
29 November 2012 at 9:15 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So I get that sea lice eat the flesh, but why do all the shrimp show up at the end for the bones? Or are they eating the sea lice?
chigau (無)
29 November 2012 at 9:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Why am I thinking about Dexter?
bcwebb
29 November 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Closely related topic to dead pigs:
PZ’s nemesis is the topic of virtual evolution:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/29/1165001/-The-evolutionary-path-from-domestic-cats-to-locats?detail=hide
Muz
29 November 2012 at 9:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Full fathom five thy piggy lies…
Ogvorbis
29 November 2012 at 9:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I watch something like that and am even more amazed that any fossils survive to be found. Especially from the Palaeozoic or Precambrian.
Gvlgeologist, FCD
29 November 2012 at 9:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I guess the sea lice aren’t kosher!
@Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort: according to the text in the article, the shrimp eat the cartilage.
I love it when posts here are directly useful to me in the class I’m giving – today! Thanks, PZ!
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
29 November 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Gvlgeologist:
Ah, okay, that makes sense then.
theophontes (坏蛋)
29 November 2012 at 9:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sea lice, shrimp… who cares!? What is Professor Poopyhead doin’ there???
busterggi
29 November 2012 at 9:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As always everything comes down to Cthulhu at the end.
Glen Davidson
29 November 2012 at 10:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Or anyway, what happens to a dead pig at the bottom of the ocean when it’s protected from being eaten by large scavengers and/or predators, like that shark.
One wonders if (probably) unfamiliar food like that could, raw as it is, pose a disease threat underwater organisms. Trichinosis? Then again, oceans seem to harbor horrific loads of pathogens (and carcasses plus feces have always flowed from land to ocean), especially viruses, so maybe they can take just about anything.
Glen Davidson
NitricAcid
29 November 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was wondering what the octopus came for, if the pig had been reduced to bones, but then realized it was probably hunting for shrimp.
Larry
29 November 2012 at 11:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, you think that a burial at sea is a romantic end to your life, eh?
Draken
29 November 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@11 Nothing can stop an octopus once it knows a camera is pointed at it.
Kevin Anthoney
29 November 2012 at 12:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There’s something more of a fan favourite than sea lice? What’s a cat doing down there?
Eric O
29 November 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Gail Anderson, the forensic entomologist behind this project, was a guest lecturer for my forensic anthropology class back in undergrad. I was very impressed by her work.
abear
29 November 2012 at 1:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That video was taken near where I live. There is an area north of here, near Queen Charlotte Islands aka Haida Gwaii, that commercial commercial fishers describe as having a “hot bottom”.
The sea lice are so thick and active there that a 50 lb. halibut can be stripped to a skeleton in a few hours.
Those interested in oceanography, marine biology, or even just more cool videos taken at the bottom of the deep ocean may want to check out not only the VENUS site that created this piece but also its’ sister project NEPTUNE.
NitricAcid
29 November 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*Waves to abear*
I think I can see your house from here!
(I’m in CR, mid-Vancouver Island.)
abear
29 November 2012 at 2:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*Waves back to Nitric Acid from about 30 miles to the south*
Brownian
29 November 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dead pig dissolving, and dead pig removing.
There’s a dead pig at the bottom of the ocean.
Remove the dead pig, carry the dead pig.
Remove the dead pig from the bottom of the ocean.
NitricAcid
29 November 2012 at 2:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*Tries to figure out what the heck that is in real units*
NitricAcid
29 November 2012 at 2:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So…one of them towns that starts with C…
Brownian
29 November 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My bet’s on Courtenay.
NitricAcid
29 November 2012 at 3:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland…they’re all kinda lumped together.
RFW
29 November 2012 at 4:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
IIRC, that experiement was conducted very near me, in Saanich Inlet. That octopus was probably a giant Pacific octopus.
The letter “C” toponym you guys are wracking your brains over is likely COWICHAN. You can see Cowichan Bay just NNW of the mouth of the inlet, also the Cowichan River flowing through the little city of Duncan, BC.
Crudely Wrott
29 November 2012 at 5:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Too bad that the camera seemed to autofoucus on the mesh containment early in the video. What happens to the corpse is thereby hidden and left to the viewer’s imagination. Which imagination is no doubt influenced by bad horror movies. It gives the impression that the sequence involves amateur FX.
Still and all, the point is well taken. Nothing goes to waste in the realm of hungry critters. Those who dwell down deep, under the waters. Near to the lair of he who will awake with even greater apatite.
The final scene, though, is killer. All hail tentacules!!
/ritual nod to Poopyhead and his far reaching tentacules, even if they are shorter than you-know-who’s/
Alex the Pretty Good
29 November 2012 at 5:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Now that’s an effective clean-up crew.
Can people sign up for that as well? Much more effective than being put in the ground in a nearly airtight coffin (or worse, in the nearly abiotic clay that abounds here in the Low Countries) or being reduced to a little ash and lots of gasses.
This way it’s “back in the food-chain you go”. No fuss … no crazy costs … no wasted land … only good things.
abear
29 November 2012 at 6:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
RFW: Was this taken from the Saanich site or one of the nodes near the mouth of the Fraser? Either way Cowichan Bay is closer than me (Comox) or another C, NI in Campbell River.
Maybe this phenomena explains why so many running shoes with some remains left in them have floated up in the South Georgia Strait?
Drowning victims tend to sink and aren’t buoyant for a few days until gases from decomposition float the victim. Here they are likely to be consumed before the gut bacteria work, especially if the water is cold and deep.
DonDueed
29 November 2012 at 6:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There’s a pig at the bottom of the sea,
There’s a pig at the bottom of the sea,
There’s a pig, there’s a pig,
There’s a pig, there’s a pig,
There’s a pig at the bottom of the…
Oh wait, no there isn’t.
– Brought to you straight from Camp Mowana
blogofmyself
29 November 2012 at 8:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
(with apologies to T.S. Eliot)
Piggy the Pignician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the troughs and slop. Some creatures under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he laid quite still,
He passed the stages of his decomposition
Entering the food chain. Atheist or skeptic
O you who read the blog and look to comments,
Consider Piggy, who was once handsome and alive as you.
Dhorvath, OM
29 November 2012 at 9:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So many islanders, I just need to leap in and say I am in Colwood. Another C, hah!
Ichthyic
29 November 2012 at 9:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
there is bacon at the bottom of the ocean.
Ichthyic
29 November 2012 at 9:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
same as it ever was.
Dhorvath, OM
29 November 2012 at 9:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Into the blue again
kpbvic
30 November 2012 at 12:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This was from the node in Georgia Strait, near the mouth of the Fraser. Discovery Channel did a piece on this experiment recently:
http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/daily-planet/november-2012/daily-planet—november-21st-2012/#clip811868
rq
30 November 2012 at 12:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That was Gail Anderson? Woo hoo! Good to hear she’s still out there. I participated in one of her seminars as part of police Ident unit training, and one of her old students was my supervisor for my bachelor’s thesis.
This kind of study was only in the works when I was going to school, and now I have my answer as to whether anyone ended up doing it or not. :)
(Poor octopus… always late to the party!)
katansi
30 November 2012 at 12:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So two things come into mind immediately…
1) nature is the most disgusting and amazing thing ever
2) Dexter did it wrong
kpbvic
30 November 2012 at 1:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
By the way, anyone who is interested in the current pig deployment can view it live at
http://venus.uvic.ca/data/camera-stream/
You have to register as a VENUS user to view this content, but registration is easy and free (registration is required because tracking site usage is the best way to impress the agencies that fund VENUS).
The lights come on every 15 minutes and only for a brief period of time so as not to affect the sea life too much.
The current deployment is in Saanich Inlet, which is extremely anoxic at depth. As a result the pigs are still almost intact after more than 3 months, which is actually pretty creepy.
Fred Salvador - The Public Sucks; Fuck Hope
30 November 2012 at 3:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Biology is vile.
John Morales
30 November 2012 at 4:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fred Salvador @38, you’ve misspelled ‘live’.