What happens to a dead body in the ocean?

For a long time it has not been entirely clear how scavengers in the ocean deal with dead bodies. In order to investigate how this decomposition occurs, a Canadian team deposited pig bodies into the Saanich Inlet over the course of three years and monitored scavenger progress with underwater cameras. The research was conducted by Gail Anderson and criminologist Lynne Bell of Simon Fraser University, and the paper was published in PLOS ONE.

According to Iflscience.com, pig carcasses were chosen for this study because they are good approximations of a human's gut microbe fauna, size, skin, and amount of body hair. In addition to studying how scavengers respond to terrestrial mammals, this research is also valuable to forensic scientists who can use the information to help solve crimes. 

Three pigs were dropped into the Saanich Inlet, a body of salt water in British Columbia. They were monitored with cameras in the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) program, which provides a live feed via the internet. The first two pigs dropped were stripped down to the bone in a matter of three weeks by crustaceans.

The third pig, however, took over 90 days to be completely eaten because a lack of dissolved oxygen in the environment prevented the larger scavengers from moving in. In addition to the cameras, the pair were also able to monitor the chemistry of the water, current, and other factors that might have influenced how the body was broken down.

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