Whales are a trillion-dollar climate change fix!

Whale populations have enormous value for the global good

Our oceans, and all marine life, play a central role in stabilizing the Earth’s climate. Oceans mitigate climate change by serving as a major heat and carbon sink. Recent science has revealed that the natural, biological processes of marine vertebrates can help to trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce climate change. 

This includes the natural functions of the largest animals in the ocean – whales. They help fix carbon in surface waters and store it in deep waters, where the carbon can be locked away from the atmosphere for thousands of years. Whales do this by fertilizing carbon-hungry plankton with their nutrient-rich and buoyant fecal plumes, by storing carbon in their biomass over their lifetimes, and after they naturally expire, by bringing their biomass to the bottom of the ocean. 

Ultimately, conserving whales helps to combat climate change. The value of ‘whale carbon’ is discussed in a new article in the International Monetary Fund’s Finance and Development magazine. Titled ‘Nature’s Solution to Climate Change: A strategy to protect whales can limit greenhouse gases and global warming’, it argues that protecting whales could add significantly to oceanic carbon capture. The article asserts that one whale is worth a thousand trees in terms of climate change mitigation and, when combined with other economic benefits such as whale watching, the current stock of great whales is easily worth over 1 trillion USD to the global economy.

Consensus of support for whale conservation as a climate strategy

In recent years, a number of institutions and experts have recognized the conservation of whales and other marine vertebrates as important means of climate change action, sometimes known as ‘oceanic blue carbon’: 

• In 2019 in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s first national policy assessment towards oceanic blue carbon marine vertebrate storage was completed. Interviews with 28 stakeholders, including government and civil society, revealed that the concept holds great interest and potential in application to national and international efforts to address climate change and sustainably manage marine life, including whales. 
• In 2018 at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Florianópolis, Brazil, 41 of 71 nations endorsed two resolutions that highlighted the potential role whales play in retaining carbon in the ocean and helping to reduce the effects of climate change.
• In 2017 at the UN Ocean Conference, over 100 marine conservation groups and scientists signed an Oceanic Blue Carbon Voluntary Commitment recognizing the values of whales and other marine life in oceanic carbon function and climate action.
• At the 2016 Hawai’i World Conservation Congress, the International Union for Conservation of Nature adopted a resolution “emphasising that healthy whale populations help to maintain necessary ocean balance by providing ecological services such as keeping fish stocks healthy, cycling nutrients and removing carbon dioxide thus minimising the effects of climate change.”
• In 2010, 29 noted marine scientists and advisors assembled at the Annual Meeting of the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation endorsed the Sant Feliu de Guíxols Ocean Carbon Declaration, which recognized that “marine vertebrates, such as whales, sharks and finfish, may also be very effective carbon sinks.”

Many civil society organizations have also expressed support for the concept, including Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), Great Whale Conservancy, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Blue Climate Solutions, a project of The Ocean Foundation.

The need for innovative climate and marine protection strategies

As the prospect of catastrophic effects from climate change becomes increasingly likely, the need for action is ever more dire. On current trends, within a decade or so, stabilizing at 2℃ may be beyond our grasp. The upcoming United Nations Climate Action Summit can help to galvanize change, but climate action is still stymied by long-standing international divisions and a failure of the global community to recognize that the crisis demands dramatic and wide-ranging reforms. 

Marine conservation also faces many challenges. Earlier this year, the Pacific nation of Palau amended plans to create a huge marine reserve to allow Japanese trawlers access to its waters. This marine sanctuary was originally supported with great fanfare in the media and by the marine conservation community, but it has been plagued by issues, including – crucially – sustainability. A key question arises with such large-scale marine conversation efforts:

It is nice to protect things in the ocean, but who is going to pay for it?

Perhaps whale carbon offsets could provide a new business model for sustainably managing the life in our oceans while mitigating for climate change?

Further reading:

IMF. 2019. The Value of Whales and Every Other Breath [Podcast]. IMF Poscasts, 15 Sep. 2019.

Lutz SJ, Glavan JC, Rubilla A. 2019. Assessment of Oceanic Blue Carbon in the UAE: Policy Options. Produced by Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI)/GRID-Arendal. 37 pp.

Pearson H. 2019. “Sea creatures store carbon in the ocean – could protecting them help slow climate change?” [Online magazine]. The Conversation, 2 Apr. 2019.

UN Environment. 2018. “Business unusual: How “fish carbon” stabilizes our climate” [Blog post]. UN Environment News and Stories, 24 Oct. 2018.

Lutz SJ, Pearson H, Vatter J, Bhakta D. 2018. Oceanic Blue Carbon. Story Map, GRID-Arendal.

Toomey, J. 2018. “Fish Carbon, Exploring Marine Vertebrate Carbon Services.” Animated video, produced by GRID-Arendal and AGEDI.

Lutz SJ, Pearson H, 2018. “International Endorsement of “Whale Carbon” [Blog post]. Blue Forests Project News Blog, 20 Sep. 2018.

Thompson K, Miller K, Johnston P, Santillo D. 2017. Storage of carbon by marine ecosystems and their contribution to climate change mitigation. Greenpeace Research Laboratories Technical Report (Review) 03-2017. 71 pp.

Lutz S. 2016. “Save a Whale, Save the Planet” [Blog post]. Blue Forests Project News Blog, 2 Nov. 2016.

Lutz SJ & Martin AH. 2014. Fish Carbon: Exploring Marine Vertebrate Carbon Services. Published by GRID-Arendal, Norway.

Link to original post by GRID-Arendal (17 Sept. 2019): https://news.grida.no/whales-are-a-trilliondollar-climate-change-fix