Scientist 1: Super cool. We're in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
and we've just come across a whale fall.
It's like Christmas for deep sea explorers right now.
But you are part of exploration in real time right now.
You are seeing and observing and making these calls with us
just at the same speed as our scientists.
Scientist 2: Great shot
Scientist 3: I'm gonna say this looks like the rostrum is slightly arched, not moderately arched.
Scientist 1: Yeah, so the arc of the jawbone there
back on the left, you have the ribs,
you can see the spinal column,
vertebrae, starting to go down the middle,
Scientist 2: There's still some vascular tubes.
Scientist 1: There's so many animals here.
Scientist 4: They're all saying "mm, I love whale fall."
Scientist 1: Covered in scavengers.
It's a happy day to be an octopus.
Scientist 2: What are we thinking, this is four to five meters long?
Scientist 1: You can see them,
they're sort of a red color in [indistinguishable]
there's sort of a white around it and then it flares at the end.
[Scientists talking over one another.]
Scientist 3: So many amphipods on there.
Scientist 5: So those are the bone worms.
Scientist 2: Yes.
Scientist 1: We put out the alert to a lot of collaborators and other scientists
within the sanctuary network and within this area who could you know help us
pull in some more detail.
Scientist 3: What's really neat is the baleen is still there.
Scientist 1: Yeah, that may offer some clues, right?
Baleen is the filter feeding structure for whales.
Scientist 3: That's right. So this is definitely a baleen whale, or a mysticete.
So it's not a toothed whale.
That narrows it down quite a bit.
Scientist 1: Listen along with us, watch along with us, send in your questions.
We want to know what you want to know
about this brand-new discovery