Blue carbon | Whales: our extraordinary allies in the fight against climate change

Whales. We all know the interesting facts. The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever lived on our blue planet. The humpback whales sing songs that travel for miles. But there's one fact about these gentle giants that isn't getting much attention at all. Whales play a surprising role in the fight against climate breakdown. Big news. What the newspaper man would call a whale of a story. In the last decade, marine biologists have made a remarkable discovery. It turns out that whales absorb carbon from the atmosphere on an enormous scale. That's partly because all living things accumulate carbon in their bodies throughout their lives. And a whale is a really, really big thing. Over their long lives, whales store vast amounts of carbon in their tissue and blubber. And when they die, their carcasses sink down to the depths of the ocean, taking carbon away from our atmosphere. We commonly think of trees as one of our planet's most effective carbon sinks. But while a mature tree can absorb around 22 kilos of carbon a year, one great whale can capture 30,000 kilos in its lifetime. But a whale's role in carbon capture doesn't end there. Whales feed in deep waters, but come to the surface to breathe, where they also release gigantic faecal plumes, a scientific way to describe whale excrement. A whale's faecal matter is so packed full of nutrients, it fertilizes the surface waters and stimulates the growth of tiny organisms called phytoplankton. Marine biologists call this process the whale pump. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton collectively capture 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. That's the same amount of carbon that would be captured by 1.7 trillion trees, or four Amazon rainforests. More whales means more phytoplankton, and more phytoplankton means more carbon captured from our atmosphere. It's an ecosystem service that is truly astonishing. And as solutions to climate breakdown come, it's one that's surprisingly simple, and it has both marine biologists and economists excited. When researchers at the International Monetary Fund calculated the average whale's carbon offset value, they estimated that including other activities like ecotourism, one great whale was worth $2 million, over $1 trillion for the total stock of great whales. The whaler's fish captain gets ready his harpoon gun. Sadly though, this stock is only a fraction of what it once was. For thousands of years, whales have been hunted for their meat, blubber and bone. And in the 20th century alone, around 3 million whales were slaughtered. Some species, like the blue whale, were pushed to the brink of extinction. Because of man's predation, there are only 5,000 to 6,000 blue whales left in all the oceans, and their fate is uncertain. Whale populations are still reeling from this historic exploitation, and face new threats from climate collapse, pollution and industrial fishing. Without efforts to protect our amazing allies in the fight against climate breakdown, some species may be lost forever within our lifetimes. EJF is calling for governments and international organisations to supercharge their efforts to protect the whale. Because while they may not be our ocean's largest carbon store, they are a critical part of a magnificent climate-regulating ocean ecosystem. Restoring their numbers to pre-exploitation levels could result in the capture of an estimated 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon a year, equal to removing over 300 million cars off the road. A welcome contribution in the fight against climate breakdown. Whales can help us, but only if we help them. It's time to protect these glorious ambassadors of the ocean.