As we generally know, Whales are the largest animals on Earth. These massive mammals weigh from 600 pounds to nearly 200 tons and stretch up to 100 feet long. Other than that, we are familiar with whale sounds which are very relaxing to listen to during sleep or meditation. So, you might be wondering why someone talks about whales in a climate change blog, the answer can be surprising for you. It is because each whale does millions of dollars worth of service in the fight against climate change. Let’s talk about how these whales contribute to the fight against climate change.
When talking about Climate Resilience, there are a few challenges that the entire world is trying to overcome. The major one is to find an effective way to reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere to reduce the greenhouse effect and its impacts of it known as global warming, climate change, and so on. Apart from depending on trees, there is a suggestion from scientists to capture CO₂ directly from the atmosphere and bury it underground. When it comes to technology it is still an entry-level idea with a lot of drawbacks. But as always mother nature has given us humans so many solutions for this issue too. One is mangroves, you can Click Here to know more about that. The other one is the topic we are discussing today, Whales. (If you know any other natural sources that are capable of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it away from it, please comment or tweet me)
The contribution of whales to fight climate change comes in two major ways. The first one is that these mammals are capable of accumulating carbon in their bodies throughout their long lifespan. On average a single whale absorbs about 33 tons of CO₂ during their lifetime. Also, when a whale dies, the carcass sinks to the bottom of the ocean keeping the absorbed carbon away from the atmosphere for centuries. So, you might think whales are somewhat like a giant swimming tree, but when it comes to comparing the numbers can be a little larger than your expectations. It’s because a matured tree only absorbs up to 22 kilos of CO₂ each year. So, a single whale with an average lifespan of 60 years is equivalent to 1500 trees.
That is not all because whales do even more work to fight against climate change. They provide a valuable Eco service known as a whale pump, which can multiply the production of Phytoplankton. These microorganisms contribute around 50 percent of global oxygen production. They also absorb nearly 40 percent of the global CO₂ from the atmosphere in the process. This is equivalent to the CO₂ captured by 1.7 trillion trees. Whales return to the surface to release huge fecal plumes which are floating masses of pee and poo rich in iron, phosphorus, and nitrogen. These are the exact substance required by the Phytoplankton to grow. So, in simple words more whales there are, the more Phytoplankton there are, and more carbon can be absorbed from the atmosphere.
About 500 years ago, before commercial whaling started there used to be around 4 – 5 million whales in the ocean. But the over-exploitation led to a serious decline in the world’s whale population. According to the International Whale Commission, many whale species are in the process of recovering. Therefore, if we can return to their pre-whaling numbers, it will significantly affect the increase of Phytoplankton. Also, that leads to capturing additional millions of CO₂ from the atmosphere annually. This is somewhat like the sudden appearance of 2 billion mature trees. Imagine the impact throughout the average lifespan of 60 years.
So, I am pretty sure that you have understood how priceless whales are, but the sad story is that current human activities have made it difficult for them to return to the 4 – 5 million population. Some of such activities are as follows.
- Ocean warming is caused by CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions.
- Lack of food availability due to overfishing.
- Marine pollution is caused by plastic and other toxic oils, chemicals, etc.
- Entanglement in fishing gear.
- Collisions with large ships.
- The extent of sea ice due to global warming.
Following are some sad images of whaling (especially from Japan, Iceland, Norway, etc.) and other man-made threats to whales.
I hope the policymakers will be much more sensitive about these priceless gifts from mother nature to support us in the fight against climate change. Comment your thoughts and suggestion below or send me via Twitter and other social platforms. Thank you for reading this blog post.
