Whale poop saves the earth more than you could ever imagine!

"Whales" What comes to your mind when you hear this word? For many, they may think "Largest sea creatures" "Blue" etc. But today, we will dig deeper and seek knowledge on why is whale poop important and why whales should be protected. 

Whales are amazing marine mammals, and the whole marine world would be lesser without them. They do more than just swim around the sea – they are making a huge contribution to the world. So, what are the 2 types of whales: toothed and baleen? 

The main difference between these two is: what they feed and what they have inside their mouth. 

• Tooth whales. From the name itself, they have teeth. They are known for being active hunters who are looking for larger prey such as fish, octopuses, crabs, etc. The way they eat their prey is by chewing it until it breaks apart or swallowing it. 
• Baleen whales. Have baleen plates. They hunt by filtering their prey from the water and swallowing these tiny floating sea creatures, such as krill. It is estimated that each whale eats 430 million tonnes of krill per year, the more they eat, the more poop they produce.

Have you heard of protecting whales to protect the planet? Well, the whale is not just a mere sea creature, but rather it provides many benefits as big as its size. If you’re curious, it’s through their poop — Whale poop may seem like an odd topic but this deserves more attention. For it adds to the quality of life on our planet. Let's first define what is whale poop — it's the toxins in the whale's body that must be released in order to ensure the healthy survival of whales. This whale poop isn't just a simple poop, rather it provides many benefits in making the environment and ecosystem healthy. Also, it plays a crucial role in the growth of the base form of the food chain, which helps in maintaining the health of the ocean and sea creatures.

So this blog will be focusing on how whale poop helps the environment:

1. Helps fight climate change!

Climate change is one of the biggest issues the world is facing right now. No one can deny the impact of it on the environment, humans, and animals. Good news! Studies show that whale poop has the ability to fight against it. How? As we know, the ocean plays a huge role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. So whale poop circulates essential nutrients throughout the ocean such as iron and nitrogen which are the source nutrients on the water's surface and this poop serves as fertilizer for phytoplankton. So, what is phytoplankton?

• The base form of all marine food chains.
• Producing 50% of the Earth’s oxygen!
• Converting the sun's rays into energy.

Therefore, whale poop helps fight climate change by providing phytoplankton with essential nutrients such as iron, nitrogen, and carbon making it easier for them to grow faster and produce more oxygen & energy for our planet. 

2. Cools our planet. 

The world is currently in a terrible state of affairs. As a matter of fact, we are all aware of climate change and what it has done to our planet Earth. There is one thing that could help us solve this problem but no one knows about it: whale poop! It’s known for carbon sequestration, for it provides nutrients to the phytoplankton that are in charge of absorbing massive amounts of carbon footprint and carbon dioxide that makes the planet cooler. Did you know that the more whales and the more plankton, the more carbon are drawn out of the air? The question is, how often does a whale poop? Whales frequently visit the surface to breathe oxygen and that's when they also relieve themselves whenever they need to. For instance, whales eat the krill and krill eat the plankton which is the absorber of carbon dioxide repeating this process shows how whale poop is interconnected with biodiversity which provides clean air and clear water. 

3. Helps keep the ocean alive. 

How does whale poop affect the ocean ecosystem?  As stated above, whale poop produces nutrients, specifically iron which is a vital micronutrient for sea creatures and it helps the plants or phytoplankton to grow, so this is proven to be a crucial nutrient needed in the topsoil of the ocean. It also serves as fertilizer which is fundamental to the health of ocean ecosystems, the global nutrient cycle, and the carbon cycle. You might be asking what whale poop looks like depending on the type of whale but feces can be neon yellow to brick red and it has the consistency of breadcrumbs. So how did it become a huge help to the ecosystem? So here it goes: The phytoplankton eat the iron/whale poop, while krill eat this plant, and big creatures such as baleen whales eat the krill, and then the process continues. When this process continuously happens the ocean will not lack nutrients as well as sea creatures. 

4. Cleans the Environment. 

It is not a new topic at all that humans have caused havoc in the natural ecosystem. There are carbon emissions everywhere we go, from industrial activities and cars that produce carbon dioxide as part of their operation, to burning fossil fuels like coal. The increase in greenhouse gas in our atmosphere is causing global warming and environmental problems. These problems are getting worse every day and we need to take action to fix this problem quickly because repairing it can be very costly. Fortunately, there is something that can help us get away from all these environmental issues by making the world a better place. Aside from being good for our health, whale poop has another magical effect on how it cleanses the environment: it absorbs greenhouse gasses!

5. Freshens the Air. 

Have you ever wondered why is whale poop valuable? Well, the answer is simple. It makes the air we breathe fresher and healthier. The oceans are home to a variety of marine animals that help produce oxygen in our atmosphere and create a healthy ecosystem. For example, phytoplankton comes from whale dung and propels itself off the ocean's surface to reach the land's surface with fresh oxygen to carry oxygen across the land, freshwater streams, and other bodies of water. So every time you breathe, you should take a moment to thank whale poop. 

Indeed, the oceans are full of life and it is home to a lot of creatures. We must take the initiatives to care for our oceans and all that live in them. However, due to whaling and pollution, there has been a huge decrease in the number of whale species in the world. The biggest threat facing these creatures is being hunted for their valuable body parts for commercial purposes.

This has answered what is whale poop used for and proved that it has made a huge difference to our world. But despite having these benefits it doesn’t stop humans from killing these majestic creatures and contributing to activities that will harm them. That's why people should take action and start advocating to protect the whales!

Ask yourself today, what can you do to help save the whales? 

Pack & Leaf supports the Oceanic Society and our adopted humpback “Howard”, which helps research & protect whales and their ocean environments worldwide.