{"id":26879,"date":"2025-04-30T15:31:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26879"},"modified":"2025-04-30T16:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:23:44","slug":"a-diver-visited-a-fallen-whale-when-he-returned-it-had-vanished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26879","title":{"rendered":"A Diver Visited a Fallen Whale. When He Returned, It Had Vanished."},"content":{"rendered":"
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How does an 18-foot-long, 2,000-pound carcass just disappear?<\/p>\n

That question has puzzled some divers and photographers who regularly plunge into the waters off San Diego.<\/p>\n

It started earlier this spring when Doug Bonhaus took advantage of some calm weather to scuba dive in Scripps Canyon. As he descended, a hulking mass took shape below him.<\/p>\n

There, at an exceptionally shallow 115 feet, lay the body of a baby gray whale.<\/p>\n

Whale falls are usually not seen by human divers. Typically, they are discovered by remotely operated vehicles at depths exceeding 3,000 feet.<\/p>\n

Local marine biologists had a guess as to the gray whale calf\u2019s origins. An animal that matched what was found on the seafloor had been spotted swimming near La Jolla Shores, desperately searching for its mother. During its final hours, it was seen approaching boats, as though asking for help that wasn\u2019t coming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Because it was the first time in memory that a fall was so accessible to people, other divers quickly made their way to the site. Among them was Jules Jacobs, an underwater photojournalist who has written<\/a> for The New York Times about his explorations.<\/p>\n

At that point in late January, the carcass\u2019s resting place was a trough in the canyon that required pinpoint precision to reach. So Mr. Jacobs steeled himself for a dangerous and mentally taxing dive.<\/p>\n

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How does an 18-foot-long, 2,000-pound carcass just disappear?That question has puzzled some divers and photographers who regularly plunge into the waters off San Diego.It started earlier this spring when Doug Bonhaus took advantage of some calm weather to scuba dive in Scripps Canyon. As he descended, a hulking mass took shape below him.There, at an exceptionally shallow 115 feet, lay the body of a baby gray whale.Whale falls are usually not seen by human divers. Typically, they are discovered by remotely operated vehicles at depths exceeding 3,000 feet.Local marine biologists had a guess as to the gray whale calf\u2019s origins. An animal that matched what was found on the seafloor had been spotted swimming near La Jolla Shores, desperately searching for its mother. During its final hours, it was seen approaching boats, as though asking for help that wasn\u2019t coming.Because it was the first time in memory that a fall was so accessible to people, other divers quickly made their way to the site. Among them was Jules Jacobs, an underwater photojournalist who has written for The New York Times about his explorations.At that point in late January, the carcass\u2019s resting place was a trough in the canyon that required pinpoint precision to reach. So Mr. Jacobs steeled himself for a dangerous and mentally taxing dive.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26881,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26882,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26879\/revisions\/26882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}