Ocean Decay?

[Darklance]

My Pcs were involved with a mid fire on a soar whale over the port of a city. The burnt whale went down in the harbor and I was wonderintg what state of decay/being eaten by preditors it would be in after about four months in earth like sea conditions. The whale is about 70ft by 30ft.

 

[Utrecht]

Sort of hard to answer........

Couple of questions for you.

1) What type of water is the dead whale in? Cold, Warm? What is the climate of the harbor (Carribean, Easern Sea Board?)

2) How big was the harbor? fundamentally what happens with any type of dying organics in water is that they are broken down by bacteria - Organic > Nitrite > Nitrate > Ammonia so if the Harbor was sufficintly small, the Ammonia could have precipitated a total harbor kill - thus accelerating the breakdown as additional fish, molluscs, crustacians etc dies. (Most sea creatures are very intollerant of ammonia - especially reef based animals)

However, taking a moderatly warm harbor of large size (Say like the Old Boston Harbor) afte 4 months the vast majority of all organics will be gone.

Example: Clown fish dies in a coral reef - 2 days nothing but bone

shark dies in a coral reef 1 week to reduce down.

As the water gets warmer, the breakdown time increases.

Hope that this helps....

 

[Thorntangle]

Whales can take years to decay on the bottom of a cold, deep ocean floor. Their carcasses become miniature ecosystems.

However, a harbor is relatively shallow, so assume much, much warmer with much more activity on all levels (scavengers, microorganisms).

Keep it simple - skeletal.

 

[jasper]

Crows and ravens from above the water line.
Fishermen and divers to recover the meat and oil and other by products.
eels, crabs, sharks, etc from the bottom.

Then add in fantasy element. I would say under a month. Unless very shallow like the beaches near Bilioxi Ms You can wade out to some islands over 1/2 mile away.
Or very deep ...

 

[Breakstone]

It'll take small fish a while to eat the whale.

It'll take sharks less time, but still a while.

However, it'll take a giant sea monster all but a few moments to swallow it whole and smash a few buildings.

I mean, come on, you've got to wonder what these guys eat!

 

[Aaron L]

A kracken drug it away. It's all gone!