If you’re planning a burial at sea, the rate at which your body to break down largely depends on whether you pick a tropical or temperate ocean.
How long does it take for a body to decompose at sea? Well, It depends on the temperature of the water. In cold water, the bacterial action that causes a body to bloat with gas may be so slowed that the body stays on the seabed. The skin will absorb water and peel away from the underlying tissues in about a week and fish, crabs and sea lice will nibble away at the flesh.
Cold water also encourages the formation of adipocere. This is a waxy, soapy substance formed from the fat in the body that partially protects the body against decomposition. Bodies have been retrieved almost completely intact from waters below 7°C after several weeks, and as recognisable skeletons after five years.
In tropical waters such as the Arabian sea, it’s a different story. Even a weighted body will normally float to the surface after three or four days, exposing it to sea birds and buffeting from the waves. Putrefaction and scavenging creatures will dismember the corpse in a week or two and the bones will sink to the seabed. There they may be slowly buried by marine silt or broken down further over months or years, depending on the acidity of the water.
Read more:
- Can a corpse filled with trapped gas explode when cremated?
- Are we thinking about death wrong in the West?
- What does dying feel like? A doctor explains what we know
This article was first published 18 July 2011. It was reviewed by Thomas Ling 2 June 2023.