A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor, typically at a depth greater than 1,000 m (3,300 ft), putting them in the bathyal or abyssal zones. On the sea floor, these carcasses can create complex localized ecosystems that supply sustenance to deep-sea organisms for decades.
A 2022 study identified 45 known natural whale falls, 38 implanted ones, and 78 fossil ones, mostly in the Pacific, but a significant number, particularly of fossil ones, in the Atlantic.
The cool thing about this is, (non-wiki links) we now know of 50+ more off the coast of Southern California, as of this year. Scripps was tasked with finding sunken WWII munitions with their ROVs and the sonar scans came back with all this new whale fall data, conveniently located right next to an oceanographic research institution. I hope they have live streams online somewhere.
God I really hope so. I absolutely love whale fall videos, but there aren’t many quality examples out there (I’ve watched that one Blue Planet episode countless times)
