In a TikTok video shared earlier this year, a family gathered on a boat pushes their loved one’s coffin into the ocean and bids them farewell.
The poster wrote in the video’s caption that her mother’s “last wishes were to have a full body burial at sea.” Some people in the comments were surprised that the ocean can be a person’s final resting place.
A popular TikTok mortician, whose response to the original video went viral on the platform, claims that burials at sea are legal and outlines certain rules that people need to follow.
THE QUESTION
Are burials at sea legal?
THE SOURCES
- General permit issued under the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA)
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA)
- New England Burials at Sea LLC
THE ANSWER
Yes, burials at sea are legal.
We don’t need pig farms, any more? Hmm…
People used Lake Meade for years.
There used to be about one per week in Carter Lake, Council Bluffs, IA.
My guess, they quit reporting them.
They are consumed quickly in the ocean.
Bury me at sea
Where no murdered ghost can haunt me
If I rock upon the waves
No corpse shall lie upon me
-Shane MacGowan
Apropos of nothing. But I love The Pogues and this story brought to mind this lyric.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS6DkktSrMA
Burial at sea sounds poetic, but I’m sure the reality is pure nightmare fuel.
Does one have to make sure they are dead first? Asking for a friend.
Cremation followed by reuse in the cats’ litter boxes.
Bury me at the public aquarium, spray and shovel me out of the crap collector.
Cynic, according to Monty Python he’s not quite dead yet. My children scattered my wife’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean at Westport, Wash., one of her favorite places to visit. And I witnessed a burial at sea once on board the Kitty Hawk when the Marines let the flag draped body of a Marine Corps. General over the port side (left side) off of the port side elevator into the briny depths of the Pacific Ocean with a 21-gun salute sendoff.
Buried my father’s ashes at sea in 1999 in the Florida Keys 2 miles into the Atlantic off Marathon, in Moser channel. He was a Navy vet and a lifelong boater.
I was on a cruise of Alaska’s Inner Passage as part of th he Submarine Veterans annual convention in 2007, and we held a Burial at Sea of a deceased shipmate during the cruise, though his remains were cremated.
…in one of history’s ironies, the victims of the original Titanic who could not be identifed due to long exposure on the high seas were weighted and slid back into the ocean they were plucked from.
https://youtu.be/OHwXhUFQPCk
…those folks were well beyond recovery, but one wonders if they knew then what they know about cold water drowning now, if they could have revived some of the “dead” victims the Carpathia found…
https://www.mypoolsigns.com/blog/bring-cold-water-drowning-victims-back-life/
…it has long been a tenet in the EMS community that “you’re not dead unless you’re WARM and dead”. Probably too much time had passed anyway, but since CPR wasn’t a “thing” in 1912, we’ll never know.
Never give up.
Or you can merely claim you buried someone at sea. Ask Obola
@ Anonymous Or you can merely claim you buried someone at sea. Ask Obola
I get it. That deal always struck me as suspicious. By the way, I jacked off a grizzley bear with a handful of cockleburs, made a video of the whole thing. Then I threw the video into the ocean.
We’re gonna need a bigger sea.
Cause of death, drowning with a chimney block chained to neck.
…I am not a sailor. Oceans get up my nose. But I know we have a number of Navy men here, some of whom have already weighed in, but I would like to ask you if the prospect of being buried at sea actually appeals, given that your career was basically bent towards staying OUT of it to the greatest extent possible?
I mean, firefighters don’t prefer creamtion as a result of their occupation nor do excavators look forwards to burial on account of theirs, si I’m genuinely curious as to whether this is a sybolic choice or more a convenience? I see above where some have indeed chosen to have their remains in some form comitted to the sea, just wondering if that’s common in people who’ve been there done that or not.
“After I’m dead I don’t care if they shove a bone up my ass and let the dogs carry me down to the woods.”
(Leonard T.)
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
It’s the preferred method of burial for former leaders of Islamic terror groups.
Allegedly.
Carnival Corporation has burials at sea – ashes. If you’re so inclined which I might be. DH and I plan to be cremated, put into a ginger jar together and disposed of together. I’m a simple person.
https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1132/~/burial-at-sea—scattering-of-ashes
So now the ocean’s gonna smell like that?
Somehow “Carnival” & “Funeral” don’t strike me as a good combination.
To Hell with the dead; dump Congress and the rest of DC into the ocean alive. Let the sharks save America; no one else is.
Chumlee AT 9:18 AM
Somehow “Carnival” & “Funeral” don’t strike me as a good combination.
…yeah, that’s more of a Celebrity cruises thing…
https://iotwreport.com/florida-mans-body-decayed-after-being-stored-in-cruise-ships-drink-cooler/
“After I’m dead I don’t care if they shove a bone up my ass and let the dogs carry me down to the woods.”
As Norm Crosby might have said> “Now there’s a line that would be misconscrewed these days!”
The Russian Mob was partial to New Melones Lake in the California gold country!
I’ve seen nature videos of what waits at the bottom of the sea for any deceased creature. Though one would be dead still the thought of the various sea creatures ripping my body apart is not pleasant.
Erik the …, yes; but, butt, Miss Piggy can eat this cracker in her bed anytime.