Grim study shows what happens to dead bodies at sea

For all the ongoing advances in both medical and forensic sciences, apparently not much is known about what happens to dead flesh when it's submerged at sea.

Because that's obviously something that the average person would quite often think about.

In an attempt to rectify this, criminologists Dr Gail Anderson Dr Lynne Belle from the Simon Fraser University collaborated with the Ocean Network Canada's Victoria Experimental Network to conduct a series of experiments that would measure the decomposition rates of dead bodies at sea.

Recently published in PLUS ONE, the study highlights how several pig carcasses were placed inside remotely-controlled underwater cage laboratories which were then placed at a depth of 300m, at the bottom of the Salish Sea in the Strait of Georgia. Pigs were chosen due to their relative proximity in size and structure to the human body.

Secured to these frames were underwater cameras and other instruments designed to record oxygen, temperature, salinity, density, pressure, conductivity, sound speed and turbidity at per minute intervals.

This was done twice – once in spring and once in autumn – as a way to test what, if any, differences seasonal temperatures would make.

During both seasons, the corpses of the pigs were quickly swarmed by local sea lice and shrimp. Gruesome time-lapse footage shows how the corpses are quickly stripped bare of meat until, at day eight, only the skeletal remains are left.

After spending 166 and 134 days under water during spring and autumn respectively, the remains of the experiments were eventually retrieved and brought to the surface for further testing. 

While this might sound like a rather macabre way of passing the time, according to Anderson the data collected from these experiments would help forensic teams "in estimating a minimum submergence time and indicating types of waters or habitats to which the remains may have been exposed".

It also gives recovery divers a clearer image of what they may be looking for during underwater search missions.