Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale
* Whaling has removed the amount of carbon from the oceans and a lot of pieces of northern New England forests.
* The whaling industry to remove 90 -95 percent of the population whale a lot over the past 100 years.
* Restore the whale population may have the additional benefit of carbon sequestration.

It’s a parting gift to the world: each whale to die a ton of carbon in the sea bed and banks, a large body and stored there for several centuries, as it can not hurt climate.

In this way, whales, such as forests in the world, climate change, sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the life and beating away. According to new research, repopulating it with the whales in the ocean can be good for fightingclimate change and tree planting.

“If you’re thinking of whales and fish in terms of carbon, and the potential for carbon offset credits by using an additional incentive for the rebuilding of this category of the population,” said Andrew Pershing of the University of Maine School of Marine Science, and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, who presented results Monday at a meeting of scientists convened by the ocean American Geophysical Union in Portland, Oregon

The contrary, Pershing noted, commercial hunting of whales may have released large amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by withdrawing from the whales in the oceans, which otherwise would have landed in the bottom of the sea.
Oceans
Pershing estimates that whaling release about 105 million tons of carbon over the past 100 years – as emissions as most of the burning forest in Oregon, driving 128,000 Hummer for 100 years – despite the fact that these accounts led many doubts.

While the amount of carbon may be issued by the IWC over the past 100 years is small compared with the amount that was released annually in all parts of the world – 7 billion tons – an amount corresponding to some of the strategies proposed to combat global warming, like many reforestation projects or seeding the ocean with iron to increase CO2 absorption of phytoplankton, Pershing said.

Trees convert CO2 directly into the wood and leaves through the process of photosynthesis. CO2 capture whales indirectly. Marine phytoplankton building tissues, through the process of photosynthesis and are eaten by zooplankton, which eat the whale and then used to build the massive body. 90 thousand tons, the blue whale, largest animal on Earth, carrying about 9.4 tons of carbon, which would be converted to 34 thousand tons of CO2, if burned or decomposed completely.

“One main difference between the whales and forests is what happens when you have reached a steady-state, the maximum size of the population,” Pershing said.

At a certain point, and density of forest up to the ceiling, where the trees die and balanced growth of new forests are no longer able to store any additional carbon, he said. “Marine systems are unique in that the animals and plant life in surface waters of the oceans, and when they die, they can take with them to the bottom of the carbon. Fully populated and the whale stock will continue to export of carbon through the sinking of the dead whales.”

It is noted that Pershing large predators such as other senior bluefin tuna, sharks can have the same effect.

“These guys are huge. And have no predators, and when they die is very likely to sink, and take the mass to the bottom of the ocean.”

Over the past 100 years, whaling remove more than 2 million whales from the Southern Hemisphere alone, “said Philip Clapham, director of the whales at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Association of Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. For many species, representing 90-95 percent of the total.

Whale blubber was used to make ghee, oil lamp, industrial, and sometimes meat consumed by animals or humans.

Some species have done better than others since the cessation of whaling, which came into force in 1986. Humpback whales doing very well in most places, said Clapham. But there are only about 2000 blue whales in Antarctica now, compared with 369,000 killed whales.

As carbon sequestration, “It’s a great idea. I love it.” The Clapham. He cautions that he has no way to assess the Pershing accounts, but “on the assumption that they are correct, it is certainly a new idea and very innovative and there is another reason to save the whales.”