ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Zuiyo-maru carcass

A long time ago, a big fish called a "whale" was swimming in the ocean. But something bad happened and the whale died.

People found the dead whale and thought it would be helpful to learn more about whales. So they took the dead body of the whale, called the "carcass," and brought it to land.

The people were interested in studying the whale, so they put the carcass in a big tank and kept it there for a while. But they eventually decided to throw the carcass back into the ocean so it could decompose naturally, which means it would break down and become food for other animals in the ocean.

However, something very strange happened after they threw the carcass back into the ocean. A group of sharks started following the carcass around and eating it!

This was surprising because sharks usually don't eat dead things like the whale carcass. It turns out that the whale carcass was helping the sharks survive because it provided them with a lot of food.

The carcass became famous and was named "Zuiyo-maru," which means "elephant ship" in Japanese. Many scientists and researchers studied the carcass and learned a lot about how animals in the ocean live and interact with each other.
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