Why whales could be key players in fight against climate change

By Alice Clifford via SWNS

Whales could be key players in the fight against climate change, suggests a new study.

By weighing up to 150 tons, living up to 90 years and growing to be the size of airplanes, whales are able to take tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it over their long lifetimes.

When they die their bodies fall to the seafloor. Here, the carbon they have taken from the atmosphere is transferred to the deep sea as they decay.

As a result, the carbon is trapped in the depths of the ocean and cannot rise to the surface.

According to the International Monetary Fund, whales take an average of 33 tons of carbon dioxide away from our atmosphere during their lifetime.

Dr. Heidi Pearson, a biologist from the University of Alaska Southeast, and lead author of the study, said: “Their size and longevity allow whales to exert strong effects on the carbon cycle by storing carbon more effectively than small animals, ingesting extreme quantities of prey, and producing large volumes of waste products.

“Considering that baleen whales have some of the longest migrations on the planet, they potentially influence nutrient dynamics and carbon cycling over ocean-basin scales.”

What is more, whales eat up to four percent of their massive body weight in krill and photosynthetic plankton every day.

For the blue whale, the biggest whale in the world, this equates to nearly 8,000 pounds.

After digesting their food, their excrement is rich in important nutrients that help krill and plankton flourish and increase photosynthesis and carbon storage from the atmosphere.

Around a quarter of carbon dioxide is absorbed by oceans, with whales contributing hugely to this effort. Another quarter is taken in by plants.

Despite nature's best efforts, currently carbon dioxide makes up 0.0429 percent of the planet’s atmosphere. This is more than 53 percent higher than before industrialization.

These high levels are due mostly to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Despite the incredible work these whales do to help our planet, they still fall victim to hunting across the globe.

Whale hunting was banned in 1986, yet according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation charity, Japan, Norway, and Iceland have killed nearly 40,000 large whales since then.

As a result, commercial hunting has decreased whale populations by 81 percent.

Whales are killed for their meat and various body parts. Their oil, blubber and cartilage are also sold to be used for specific pharmaceuticals and health supplements.

Despite knowing the extent of whaling, scientists still remain unsure about what this is doing to the ocean’s ability to take carbon from our atmosphere.

Pearson said: “Whale recovery has the potential for long-term self-sustained enhancement of the ocean carbon sink.

“The full carbon dioxide reduction role of great whales (and other organisms) will only be realized through robust conservation and management interventions that directly promote population increases.”

She added: “Understanding the role of whales in the carbon cycle is a dynamic and emerging field that may benefit both marine conservation and climate-change strategies.

“This will require interdisciplinary collaboration between marine ecologists, oceanographers, biogeochemists, carbon-cycle modelers, and economists.”

The study was published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.