There are more whale falls off Los Angeles than the rest of the world combined.

In 2021 and again in 2023 researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography surveyed the San Pedro basin off LA for toxic waste, and discovered more than 60 whale skeletons on the sea floor. Hitherto only about 50 whale falls were known in all the world’s oceans since 1977.

The researchers now plan to discover how the whales died.