Long live the whales!
These majestical storybook creatures are not only the stuff of legends but also a better life on earth. Whales are large animals by nature, weighing tons and worth their weight in gold for their positive impact on our environment.
There’s something whales can do that’s unparallel in any other animal or living thing on land. Whales are nature’s gift to the ocean and one viable solution to reducing the world’s carbon footprint. And they do a whale of a job!
Our carbon footprint is the gaseous or CO2 emissions from human production or consumption that causes changes in the climate or weather patterns. These climatological changes are thought to be associated with the gaseous emissions that surround the earth, which causes global warming.
Whales store tons of carbon dioxide or CO2 in their enormous bodies. Studies reveal that too much CO2 is dangerous not only to humans but also to the health of our planet.
We must be committed to our terrestrial and marine ecosystems relative to natural carbon reduction. Whale preservation is a big part of this natural strategy.
Trees, grasslands, and plants do their job extracting CO2 from the atmosphere. But sometimes, human influence on the ecosystem around us isn’t always good. I’m talking about the negative impacts of logging, housing and commercial developments, and forest fire devastations. Reforestation efforts must continue.
Did you know that trees don’t capture nearly the amount of carbon as whales, especially baleen and sperm whales, two of the largest animals on the planet?
The sad thing is centuries of commercial and industrial whaling have decreased the number of whales, and some species are almost extinct. We know now that tons of carbon are released into the atmosphere when commercial fishermen kill and process whales. But the carbon in dead whales that sink to the bottom of the ocean remains there for centuries. Just think of the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere due to industrial whaling that could have been on the ocean floor or seabed.
Thank God, with protections in place, the whale population is increasing, which will help with carbon reduction. But whales aren’t out of danger altogether.
Today whales are victims of pollution, warming of the ocean, injury from ships, and other hazards.
Whales are much more important to us as carbon stores than a source of oil, meat, and whalebone.
Whales are critical for the ocean’s ecological system, where they feed and roam. The whales’ poo help fertilize phytoplankton, microscopic free-floating plants in the sea.
This may be gross, but the science and benefits of whales’ poo are real. Whale excrements contain phosphorus, nitrogen, iron, and other nutrients that phytoplankton, fish, and other marine organisms feed on. Phytoplankton, a food source for many fish and other organisms, absorb 40 percent of the CO2. The amount of carbon sequestered by phytoplankton is said to be four times the amount taken in by the Amazon rainforest.
If we want to accelerate our advances in cooling the earth and other climatological and ecological concerns, let’s put more effort and money into protecting and increasing the whale population.
Continue to protect the whales!
Be well.