Dramatic shark frenzy tears pig apart in hours

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV

What happens to a dead body if it's dumped in the ocean? If large scavengers can't get at it, sea lice are likely to slowly devour it from the inside out. But if a carcass is left exposed, it will probably be ravaged by sharks, as shown in this dramatic video.

Captured at a depth of 300 metres in the strait of Georgia near Vancouver Island, Canada, the footage is part of an experiment led by Gail Anderson from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, that uses dead pigs as models for human bodies. It aims to examine decomposition in an area with normal oxygen levels, where a range of scavengers are likely to visit. In a previous study conducted in a nearby inlet, body decay was affected by low oxygen levels, restricting sea life that fed on the remains.

In this video, one of the carcasses was quickly visited by shrimp followed by a few small crustaceans that targeted its mouth and nose. Then a few hours later, a sixgill shark located the dead pig, attracting other sharks, which helped it devour the body within hours. Each of the three specimens filmed were eaten to varying degrees by the hungry predators. "Although it showed that sharks are common in this area, it didn't provide a longer-term understanding of tissue breakdown and invertebrate colonisation," says Anderson.

In a new set of experiments, pig carcasses are deployed in pairs, leaving one exposed while the other one is caged to compare the difference. A video camera underwater has now been set up as a live stream: lights are turned on every 15 minutes, allowing the public and other researchers to follow the process. The most recent pair of pigs, deployed on 12 August, can currently be watched as they turn to bones.

For more similar videos, watch pig carcasses mimic how a smoker's body decays or see how beetles can bury and devour a dead rat.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2501a670/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A120C10A0Cdramatic0Eshark0Efrenzy0Etears0Epig0Eapart0Ein0Ehours0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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