Carbon storage - A Novel Way

Whales are the largest animals on the planet, and when it comes to storing carbon, they act like trees in a forest.

It's their parting gift to the world: Each dying whale carries tons of carbon to the sea floor as its massive body sinks, storing it there for centuries where it can't harm the climate.

In this way, whales are like the world's forests, sucking climate-changing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere over their lifetime and socking it away. And according to new research, repopulating the oceans with whales could be as good for battling climate change as planting trees.

Trees convert CO2 directly into wood and leaves through photosynthesis. Whales capture CO2 indirectly. Marine phytoplankton build their tissues through photosynthesis and are eaten by zooplankton, which whales then eat and use to build their colossal bodies. A 90-ton blue whale, the largest animal on Earth, holds about 9.4 tons of carbon, which would be converted to 34 tons of CO2 if it were burned or decomposed completely.

"One key difference between whales and forests is what happens when you've reached your steady state, your maximum population size," Pershing said.

At some point, the forest reaches its maximum density where dying trees are balanced by new growth, and the forest can no longer store any additional carbon, he said. "Marine systems are unique in that the animals and plant life in the surface waters of the ocean, when they die, they can take that carbon with them down to the bottom. A fully populated whale stock will continue to export carbon through sinking of dead whales."

And Pershing notes that other large top predators like bluefin tuna and sharks can have the same effect.

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