Whales reduce CO2?

    Animals produce CO2 which causes climate change. That's why it may come as a surprise if I tell you that the biggest animals ever are actually helping fight climate change. Of course, if you read the title you'd know who I'm talking about, but because some people don't read the title, I have to waste my time writing an introduction. Thanks a lot. Anyways, whales actually help reduce CO2 in two different ways. First, when they take a Taco Bell sized dump they fertilize a phytoplankton bloom. If you don't know, phytoplanktons are basically microscopic plants in the ocean. Despite their size, when they bloom they'll filter out a lot of carbon. 

The other way that whales reduce CO2 is by storing it in their body's. A big whale is probably able to store about 33 tons of CO2 in their lifetime. So, when they die, the whale carcass will sink down into the deep ocean, where the carbon is trapped for hundreds of years. This means that a healthy whale population will keep lots of CO2 trapped underwater.

For more fun and easy to understand posts about the ocean check out my blog.