21 October 2020
In the last fifty years, whales have been hunted to the
brink of extinction because of uncontrolled hunting.
The whaleswere used as a source of food and fuel,
but because of uncontrolled hunting there were
fewer and fewer whales each year. It was not until
the 1980’s people started to realize what was
happening and decided to make a change. Whales
are not just not giant pots of money, their actual living
creatures. But at that time they didn't know what a
significant role that whales played.
Yes we know that whales eat fish and krill but they
don't only eat these creatures but they also keep
them alive. In fact they sustain the entire
ocean. Whales often eat in areas which are
pitch dark.But when they come up to the surface
to breathe they enter the photic zone. The photic
zone is the top of the water where there is enough light
for plants to grow and photosynthesis to happen.
When they are in the photic zone they send plumes
into the water, these plumes(poo) are full of iron and
nitrogen, which are very scarce in the surface waters.
A plant called plankton (which is found at the
surface of the water) uses these nutrients for itself
to reproduce. Plankton is a plant that reduces
carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is one of the reasons
for climate change and therefore the more whales there
are the more plankton there is. But thats not the only
thing they do, when they swim they make any
plankton that is sinking to go back up to the top
giving it more time to reproduce. So we can blame the whales responsible for removing tens of millions of
tons of carbon each year, so they are slowing
global warming and changing the climate.
Save the whales!!!
