In terms of combating climate change and maintaining marine health, saving whales may be more important than planting trees.
The whale is the largest animal in the world, it can provide fertilizer for phytoplankton, and this phytoplankton can absorb 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide.
From this point of view, the role of whales cannot be underestimated.
Besides, a large amount of carbon is stored in the whale’s body; after death, the carbon will sink to the bottom of the sea, and sometimes it can be stored there for hundreds of years.
Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that whales are worth more than US $ 1 trillion in carbon storage and maintaining the health of marine functions.
Based on its contribution to carbon capture, fisheries proliferation, and tourism, the whale value is more than $ 2 million.
However, in the past two hundred years, the number of whales in the global ocean has dropped from 5 million to 1.5 million today.
Commercial whaling has been banned for more than 30 years. However, they still face various effects brought about by humans, such as plastic and noise pollution, injuries by ships, entanglement by fishing gear, and oceans caused by global warming variety.
During its long life, whales can accumulate and store carbon in their bodies through eating.
Some whales weigh up to 200 tons and have an average life span of 70 years.
The life span of bowhead whales is estimated to be as long as 268 years. After the whale died, its body and the carbon stored in the body sank to the bottom of the sea.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that each whale can store an average of 33 tons of carbon dioxide, while a tree absorbs only 22 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year.
Planting trees is considered to be the cheapest and fastest way to eliminate carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Still, evidence shows that there is also excellent carbon capture potential for protecting and expanding whale populations.
Whale carcasses that sink to the bottom of the sea take decades to decompose, and they can constitute a complete ecosystem by themselves and can provide a large number of direct food sources for deep-sea species ranging from scavengers to bacteria.
However, living whales can make more contributions to carbon capture, thanks to their giant feces.
Their feces contain many nutrients such as phosphorus, iron, and nitrogen, which are necessary for the growth of phytoplankton microorganisms.
Phytoplankton consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen during photosynthesis.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that phytoplankton can capture about 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 1.7 trillion trees or four Amazon rainforests.
They also contribute 50% to 85% of oxygen to the earth’s atmosphere.
Sylvia Earle, a famous marine explorer from National Geographic magazine, estimates that every five times humans breathe, one of the oxygen comes from phytoplankton.
Scientific research has shown that whales can bring about “multiple effects,” where they increase phytoplankton production.
In addition to the vertical movement of nutrients from the depths of the ocean to the sea, the so-called “whale pump” action, whales also drive the lateral diffusion of these nutrients through a large-scale migration movement, the phenomenon of the “whale conveyor belt.”
