Derrick Chaulk was driving along the Atlantic coast when he spotted what he thought was a
beached whale. When he ran to its aid, he realized it was a Greenland shark in distress. A large
piece of moose was lodged in its throat.
Chaulk and Jeremy Ball pulled the moose from the shark’s giant jaws and then carefully rolled
the mammoth creature back into the water. Greenland shark expert Jeffrey Gallant commends
the heroic Canadians but offers an important suggestion: next time, leave the moose in the
shark’s mouth. “That way,” he told CBC News, “you reduce the risk of getting bit accidentally.”
Perhaps but Chaulk has no regrets. “It was a good feeling to see that shark swim out,” he
said, “knowing that we saved his life.” Though scientists can’t say for certain, the belief has
been that most sharks prefer to kill their food rather than eat the bodies of dead animals. But
scientists have recently learned that great white sharks will eat the blubber (or fat) from a whale
carcass. Tiger sharks also have been discovered eating dead green turtles.
Bone-Eating Worms
Do tiny death eaters glide through the sea as they do
on solid ground? Maggots don’t exist underwater, but
another worm steps up to tackle whalebones when
the flesh has been cleared. Bone-eating worms called
Osedax
scour the deep seafloor to feed on sunken
treasure. They look like blowfly maggots, but unlike
maggots,
Osedax
feed on a carcass at the end of
decomposition, not at the beginning.
About 10,000 feet (3,048 m) below the ocean’s
surface, the female
Osedax
eats fat and protein
trapped within a whalebone. Acids in her skin
dissolve the whalebones, freeing up the nutrients. But
the worms can’t digest those nutrients on their own.
Bacteria trapped in the
Osedax
roots—like legs—
digest the food as the worms drill into the bone. Once
the bacteria digestion is complete, the bacteria pass
the nutrients to the
Osedax
. Fluttering red fringe on the
back end of the
Osedax
gathers oxygen from the water,
so the bacteria can feed and breathe at the same time.
After other death eaters
eat the flesh of dead
marine animals,
Osedax
devour the bones.
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