Whale Feces Fights Climate Change

Imagine the luck! Next week, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is going to discuss opening up commercial whaling and this week a report comes out that indicates whale feces is a front line soldier in the fight against climate change.

Biologists at Flinders University estimated that one sperm whale defecates about 50 tonnes of iron into the sea yearly.

The iron is a terrific food for phytoplankton -- marine plants that live near the ocean surface and which suck up CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

As a result of faecal fertilisation, the whales remove 400,000 tonnes of carbon each year, twice as much as the 200,000 tonnes of CO2 that they contribute through respiration.

By way of comparison, 200,000 tonnes of CO2 is equal to the emissions of almost 40,000 passenger cars, according to an equation on the website of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The whales' faeces are so effective because they are emitted in liquid form and close to the surface, before the mammals dive, said the paper.

Now, this should be big news. For generations, purveyors of insults and jokesters have characterized whale feces as the lowest form of substance on the planet and here we have scientists say that it is spewed out as a liquid and it usually stays at the surface.

Modify your metaphors accordingly. Meanwhile, see if you can erase the mental image of people swimming around with whales in water full of liquid whale feces.

In any event, I am suspicious of the motivation behind the study since whaling is a red-hot political issue. Consequently, I have real trouble believing any of the numbers bandied about regarding whales and Earth's climate.

Once again, just imagine the luck of having the whale feces report come out right ahead of the meeting to discuss relaxing the moratorium on whaling.

More commentary here.