An underwater photographer in Australia was lost for words when he came across the remains of a humpback whale on the seabed.
“It’s hard to put into words what it was like diving on this skeleton, surrounded by the echoing calls of singing whales,” said marine biologist Ollie Clarke on Instagram in 2025. “Harrowing, yet strangely beautiful.”
The carcass was from a humpback whale that had become entangled in discarded fishing gear – often known as ghost gear – and couldn’t be saved, said Clarke: “Eventually it succumbed to its injuries.”
Underwater footage shows the enormous size of the whale – and the many animals feeding on it. Credit: Oliver Clarke
When an animal dies in the ocean, it provides food and nutrients for many other creatures. After the whale’s body sank to the seafloor, many animals were attracted to the feast. “There were hundreds of sharks,” said Clarke. “Mostly tigers and dusky sharks but a lot of different species were present trying to get a piece of the action.”
Because of the feeding frenzy that can happen around carcasses, diving nearby is not recommended. It’s “extremely rare” for whale falls to occur in areas where divers might find them, said Clarke, adding that this carcass was in a “very remote” part of Western Australia.
In the footage that Clarke captured, the humpback’s flesh had been almost entirely eaten and the bones remained with tiny fish flitting around it.
He could also hear live whales singing in the background as he swam. “Humpbacks use this area as a resting ground during their migration so whilst underwater we could hear the ethereal and almost haunting songs of other whales in the area very clearly,” he says.
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Top image: Whale fall. Credit: Oliver Clarke (@ollieclarkephoto)