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canopic jug writes:

Several researchers working for the International Monetary Fund's Finance and Development section have written about concrete economic benefits provided by whales and their role in sequestration of atmospheric carbon. They advocate mindset recognizing the important function of oceanic ecosystems and marine life from whales and seabirds to phytoplankton. Restoring the whale populations to their pre-industrial numbers would help noticeably in mitigating climate change.

Wherever whales, the largest living things on earth, are found, so are populations of some of the smallest, phytoplankton. These microscopic creatures not only contribute at least 50 percent of all oxygen to our atmosphere, they do so by capturing about 37 billion metric tons of CO₂, an estimated 40 percent of all CO₂ produced. To put things in perspective, we calculate that this is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ captured by 1.70 trillion trees—four Amazon forests’ worth—or 70 times the amount absorbed by all the trees in the US Redwood National and State Parks each year. More phytoplankton means more carbon capture.

In recent years, scientists have discovered that whales have a multiplier effect of increasing phytoplankton production wherever they go. How? It turns out that whales’ waste products contain exactly the substances—notably iron and nitrogen—phytoplankton need to grow. Whales bring minerals up to the ocean surface through their vertical movement, called the “whale pump,” and through their migration across oceans, called the “whale conveyor belt.” Preliminary modeling and estimates indicate that this fertilizing activity adds significantly to phytoplankton growth in the areas whales frequent.

Earlier on SN:
We Can Tell Where a Whale has Travelled from the Themes in its Song (2019)
Oceans Warming 40% Faster than Previously Predicted (2019)
Japan Restarting Commercial Whaling, Ignoring Global Moratorium (2018)
Ocean Circulation in North Atlantic at its Weakest (2018)
How Cruise Ships Bring Agonising Death to Last Greek Whales (2018)
NOAA Halts Whale Disentanglement Efforts After Rescue Operation Death (2017)

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