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Bad to the Bone

April 10, 2018

Look closely at this rib from a sperm whale found dead on a Nantucket Beach in 2002, and you can see a lesion—pits on the joint surface and a large cavernous hole. WHOI biologist Michael Moore and colleagues concluded that the injury was likely caused by nitrogen bubbles that formed when the whale ascended too rapidly from high-pressure depths. The tiny bubbles obstruct blood flow and lead to bone damage—a syndrome known as decompression sickness, or the bends. Scuba divers are well aware of this danger. Apparently, whales may be susceptible too. The whale’s skeleton is now exhibited in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)