Commercial whaling is a disaster that is fought against worldwide. In the past, whalers have been able to fire back with evidence that shows whales produce a large amount of carbon dioxide when exhaling, suggesting that they are in fact contributing to global warming. But recent research has proven that whales are a benefit to society… well at least their feces are.
Biologists are producing data that the Southern Ocean Sperm Whales are actually eliminating quite a dose of carbon dioxide from the earth. The feces that the whales produce contain a great deal of iron, which is consumed by plants on the surface of the water.
Estimates are that the feces from the whale are in fact eliminating approximately 400,000 metric tons of C02 from the air. Compared to the 200,000 metric tons that they produce through exhaling each year, that leaves 200,000 metric tons eliminated.
While those numbers might be a foreign language to you, the EPA compares 200,000 metric tons to 41,841 cars yearly emissions, a truly astonishing amount of CO2 eliminated from the environment. Sadly, if whaling hadn’t occurred, that number would be 10x what it is currently. Save the whales!
