Oliver, Yes, this idea has been around for a few years, promoted by Victor Smetacek amongst others. See these links: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18807-whale-poop-is-vital-to-oceans-carbon-cycle.html http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1699/3527 http://weirdscience.ca/category/ocean/ http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/dat/02SMETACEKSEPARATA.pdf http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101012101255.htm Chris.
On Tuesday, August 20, 2013 12:40:00 PM UTC+1, Oliver Tickell wrote: > I believe this is well authenticated. I read a New Scientist feature on > the topic maybe a year ago. The main thrust was that this maintains the > populations of fish and other marine life. With the huge reductions in > whale populations the oceans as a whole have become less productive - and > fish catches have declined not only as a result of over-fishing. It turns > out that Greenpeace did well to choose the whales as their iconic life form > as they are "keystone species" in the functioning of global marine > ecosystems. Oliver. > > On 19/08/2013 21:34, Greg Rau wrote: > > If whales increase the ocean carbon sink (and I've got to read the fine > print to be convinced), then the obvious geoengineering response is to > breed more whales. And/or will whale harvesters now need to pay a carbon > tax? Could partnering with ETC and Greenpeace on this be far behind?� > Greg > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Fred Zimmerman <[email protected]> <javascript:> > *To:* geoengineering <[email protected]> <javascript:> > *Sent:* Monday, August 19, 2013 9:49 AM > *Subject:* [geo] sperm whales and oif > > *Reference:�*Proc Roy SocB�http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 > Sperm whale poo offsets carbon by fertilising the oceans with > iron<http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/06/16/sperm-whale-poo-offsets-carbon-by-fertilising-the-oceans-with-iron/> > > By�Ed Yong <http://discovermagazine.com/authors?name=Ed+Yong>�| June > 16, 2010 8:00 am > [image: > Sperm_whales]<http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/files/2010/06/Sperm_whales.jpg> > While the world wrangles over ways of reducing carbon emissions, some > scientists are considering more radical approaches to mitigating the > effects of climate change. Dumping iron dust into the world�s oceans is > one such strategy. Theoretically,�the iron should act as > fertiliser<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization>, > providing a key nutrient that will spur the growth of photosynthetic > plankton. These creatures act as carbon dioxide pumps, removing the > problematic gas from the air and storing the carbon within their own > tissues. When the plankton die, they sink, trapping their carbon in the > abyss for thousands of years. > It may seem like a fanciful idea, but as with much of our technology, > nature beat us to it long ago. Trish Lavery from Flinders University has > found that sperm whales fertilise the Southern Ocean in exactly this way, > using their own faeces. Their dung is loaded with iron and it stimulates > the growth of plankton just as well as iron dust does. > Sperm whales <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale>�are prodigious > divers, descending to great depths in search of prey like squid. When > they�re deeply submerged, they shut down all their non-essential bodily > functions. Excretion is one of these and the whales only ever defecate when > they reach the surface. By happy coincidence, that�s where photosynthetic > plankton (phytoplankton) make their home � in the shallow column of water > where sunlight still penetrates. So by eating iron-rich prey at great > depths and expelling the remains in the shallows, the whales act as giant > farmers, unwittingly seeding the surface waters with fertiliser. > There are approximately 12,000 sperm whales left in the Southern Ocean. By > modelling the amount of food they eat, the iron content of that food, and > how much iron they expel in their faeces, Lavery calculated that these > whales excrete around 50 tonnes of iron into the ocean every year.� And > based on the results of our own iron fertilisation experiments, the duo > calculated that every year, this amount of iron traps over 400,000 tonnes > of carbon in the depths, within the bodies of sinking plankton. > Previously, scientists assumed that whales (and their carbon dioxide-rich > exhalations) would actually weaken the Southern Ocean�s ability to act as > a CO2�pump. But according to Lavery, this isn�t true. She worked out > that the whales pump out just 160,000 tonnes of carbon through their > various orifices. All of these figures are probably conservative > underestimates but even so, they suggest that sperm whales remove around > 240,000 more tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere than they add back in. > They are giant, blubbery carbon sinks. > However, their true potential will go largely unfulfilled thanks to our > harpoons. Many sperm whales have been killed by industrial whalers, and the > population in the Southern Ocean has declined by some 90%. On the bright > side, the Southern Ocean�s population represent just 3% of the global > total, so this species may have an even greater role as a warden for carbon > than Lavery has suggested. Other seagoing mammals probably have a part to > play too, provided that they feed at depth and excrete near the surface. > Several other toothed whales do this, and some filter-feeding ones may do > too. > *Reference:�*Proc Roy Soc B�http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 > *Image�*by�Cianc<http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianc/298211739/in/photostream/> > > --- > Fred Zimmerman > Geoengineering IT! �� > Bringing together the worlds of geoengineering and information technology > GE NewsFilter: http://geoengineeringIT.net:8080� > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
