We recap the whole study here: whalescientists.com/the-great-wh...

Our world is connected in many more ways than we think! Many thanks to a fabulous co-author team, led by Joe Roman @jjkiszka.bsky.social @luishuckstadt.bsky.social

But, industrial whaling has decimated whale populations, reducing this vital ecosystem process by about two-thirds. Today, conservation efforts have partially re-established the Great Whale Conveyor Belt, although climate change poses a new threat.

The whale-derived nutrients help support nutrient-poor tropical lagoon ecosystems, such as coral reefs. In Hawaii, we calculate that nutrient release by whales is ~1.5x more than abiotic processes, such as upwelling.

Each year, the whales undertake long migrations to give birth to their calves in warm tropical lagoons. In doing so, they transport vast quantities of nutrients such as nitrogen and release these in their urine, placenta and carcasses.

Whales spend their summers feeding in cold, nutrient-rich waters at high-latitude locations such as Alaska or Antarctica. During this time they build vast energy reserves and store this as blubber.

@pnas.org @econovoau.bsky.social @aarhusuni.bsky.social

Image credit: Frank Rønsholt;

23. We must instead take responsibility for the welfare-oriented way in which animals live and die under our care, while educating the broader public about the biological and ethical reasons for using death as an effective and sustainable population-management strategy.

22. We live at a time when outsourcing unpleasant truths about animal deaths is no longer adequate. To do so shirks our duty of care to species under human protection—in the interest of minimising presumed backlash from the public.