They accelerate upwards and their bubbling metabolism will compensate. If any creatures on the surface die from inhalation of the fart then the whales become awake and feed on them immediately. Slumber resumed. It's like a background clean-up process.
This is an interesting theory but it’s not at all how sperm whales eat and doesn’t fit into their dietary habits that we know of.
It was just a muse. I wasn't being serious at all.
I know, I was also not being serious.
Yup, the old brap n' snap. Everyone who swims around whales knows and fears this.
Whale farts be deadly.
A real flatulence event would probably qualify as a minor geological disturbance