Apr. 29, 2021: Whales Worth Watching {Episode One}
Join Host Eliza Ward as she talks to whale expert and conservation biologist, Joe Roman, and economist and whale enthusiast, Ralph Chami. As a result of the combination of Joe’s studies on whales and Ralph’s economic background, Ralph was able to evaluate whales in a way they have never been looked at before. Through currency.
[Upbeat playful jingle]
ELIZA WARD: Have you ever wondered why environmentalists care so much about saving species? I’m your host, Eliza Ward, and welcome to Pros of Conservation where we learn why saving endangered species is worth it.
[elephant trumpet, owl who, lion roar, wolf howl, then music fades]
[whale vocalization]
ELIZA WARD: I will never forget the first time I saw a whale in the wild. [sounds of the beach in the background] While on a fishing trip in Cape Cod, a massive humpback breached at the surface and [splashing sound in background] slapped its fin on the ocean.
Currently, 6 out of 13 great whale species are considered endangered or vulnerable. Since the 1970s, whale populations have been slowly increasing, though scientists believe their current population is still just 10-20% of what they were before whaling. However, these increased numbers have allowed researchers to learn some new things about whales that prove they are valuable to not only their ecosystem but to humans.
To learn more about whales, I called up conservation biologist, Joe Roman. Joe has been researching whales since he was in college. Since I remembered the first time I saw a whale, I asked Joe about his first experience. [phone ringing in background]
JOE ROMAN (1:00): So looking for whales among these experts, and I thought I saw something like a glint that was a little bit different on the water. When I got closer, right whales often do what we would call “log” at the surface. So they’re basically they look like logs. And the first thing I saw was actually was a log, but then saw this sort of a little, like mist on the horizon. So it was a blow, and then we got close to the whale. And I can still remember this, they do something it’s called fluking because they’re very buoyant, right? So they float up the surface. But in order to dive, they have to go vertical, and they throw their flukes up, I’m sure you’ve seen this, and we’ve seen whales, and then they dive. And in that fluke print was an enormous fecal plume, so there was a lot of poop in there. And I didn’t know them, but that was sort of set the course of my career. But I still remember that sort of one of those first days and first times I ever saw whales also seeing them poop at the surface before they dive.
[Playful music]
ELIZA WARD: You heard him correctly. Joe has spent years studying whale poop. Why? Back at college, he had a realization.
JOE ROMAN: I was taking a class at the University of Florida for my master’s degree, and they described what’s called the biological pump and the biological pump is you can only have photosynthesis, phytoplankton at the surface because they need light, right? So the surface of the ocean, and then when they die, or they’re fed on, they sink, and that’s the biological pump, those nutrients moved from the surface to the bottom.
And when I learned about that, I remember that day I thought, well, actually, whales are doing the opposite, right? Whales are diving deep, they’re feeding and then they’re coming to the surface and they’re defecating, and they’re resting, they’re breathing, and they’re defecating. So it created this idea of this whale pump that whales, were taking these deep sea deep water nutrients towards the surface releasing limiting nutrients such as nitrogen or iron to the surface, so they’re kind of fertilizing their own gardens, right. And I described this to a colleague of mine. And he said, Well, sure, you know, there are probably some nutrients at the surface. But is it ecologically important, or is a fart in a hurricane?
ELIZA WARD: After studying whales for a couple years, Joe was able to confirm that the whale pump was real. But, who cares about nutrients on the top of the ocean? Phytoplankton. More on that later.
[Playful music ends]
[Mysterious music begins to play]
ELIZA WARD: Joe published his study in 2010. Little did he know, seven years later our next guest was reading it. His fascination led him to a groundbreaking discovery, whales are making money.
Economist Ralph Chami had always dreamed about seeing blue whales, but it wasn’t until he told a friend about it that it actually became a reality. The friend put him in contact with a research group studying blue whales.
RALPH CHAMI: About a week later, I got a phone call. Says so you’re Ralph. Yeah. And you’d like to see blue whales, study blue and said, yeah. You know how to swim? Yeah. You know, today. Yeah. Do you get seasick? No. Do you know anything about whales? No. Okay, you’re hired, we have a cancellation [laughter].
ELIZA WARD: And just like that, Ralph flew all the way from DC to Loreto, Mexico to see the largest living mammal in the world, a blue whale.
RALPH CHAMI: You can hear it from a mile from a mile away, because when she comes out and she blows the air out, you can smell it and from way and it’s and you can hear it. He’s just incredible sound. [Cinematic music begins] And then and then you come closer to her. And you realize there’s a, this is an intelligent being just basically inhabits the water and you feel the presence of another presence next to you. And it’s wonderful.
ELIZA WARD: Once work was over, Ralph and the crew would get off the 25ft long boat and stay in living quarters together. Unlike the rest of them, Ralph didn’t know a lot about them or even conservation. All he had was his background in physics and economics and his passion for whales.
RALPH CHAMI: I overheard them talk about whale carbon. And I knew from physics and chemistry that we are all carbon units. So I said, well, what’s the big deal, we are all carbon units, and one of the whale experts said, yeah, but this is a different kind. The whales sequester Carbon in tons.
ELIZA WARD: Throughout a great whales life they accumulate carbon. When they die, they sink to the bottom of ocean and keep the carbon within them. Ralph wanted to know how much carbon, so he did what any economist would do, math.
RALPH CHAMI: So I had to construct a table by hand, and I was writing down, you know, this, and I calculated, you know, and then came up with on average, it’s like nine tons of carbon on the body of a whale. Now, to go from carbon to carbon dioxide, you have to multiply by 11 over three. And that’s how you get the 33 tons of carbon dioxide.
[Playful music plays]
ELIZA WARD: To put that into perspective, it would take a tree 1,375 years to sequester the same amount CO2.
Ralph wasn’t done yet. After the scientists witnessed how passionate he was about whales services, they told him about Joe’s proposed “whale pump.” Remember phytoplankton? This is why it is so important.
RALPH CHAMI: Phytoplankton captures about 30% of all carbon dioxide that is emitted. What does that mean? That means phyto per year. That means phytoplankton captures carbon dioxide equivalent to four Amazon forests per year. And so what the whales are doing, they’re, they’re they’re they’re fertilizing the phyto. So as they fertilize the phyto there’s more phyto too. There’s more phyto there’s more absorption.
ELIZA WARD: If absorbing 30% of all emitted CO2 wasn’t enough for you, don’t worry, there’s more.
RALPH CHAMI: See phytoplankton, what they do, they do photosynthesis. And as if you know anything from a biology photosynthesis, they absorb carbon dioxide. And, and keep the carbon and release the oxygen. So the carbon becomes sugar in their bodies of the Phyto. And the oxygen goes back up. So in a sense, how much oxygen they release? But at the minimum is 50% of all oxygen we breathe.
So we’re having this conversation and this whale expert. She looks at me and she says, so I said, I said 50% of all oxygen. And she said, yes. That’s every other breath that you take.
RALPH CHAMI: I said, You know, I can probably value all these things. So she literally she kind of stopped around looked at me. She said, So how much do you value your next breath.
[Mysterious music begins to play]
ELIZA WARD: Ralph stayed up in his cabin all night and did the math.
So, how much is a whale really worth?
RALPH CHAMI: When you when you look at these three, just these three things, the value of the services of a single whale is at minimum 2 million dollars.
ELIZA WARD: We pay nothing to whales, yet somehow what they do is equivalent to 2 million dollars in services. When Ralph put this number on whales, it was not to give them a price tag but to make them more accessible.
Though people like Joe and Ralph can see the value of a whale past a number, equating services helps to raise money to protect the whales. With just a small investment into the protection of whales, you can help to secure your next breath.
[Mysterious music ends]
[Theme music plays]
ELIZA WARD: With that, I would like to thank you for listening to this episode of Pros of Conservation. Thank you to our guests Joe and Ralph for helping with this week’s episode. Please check out the description box for a link to the show’s website where you will find this episode’s show notes, transcript, and more information on our guests. Additionally, thank you to Purple Planet and FreeSound for supplying music and effects. Stay green!
SHOW NOTES:
Information on Joe Roman and his study, The Whale Pump: Marine Mammals Enhance Primary Productivity in a Coastal Basin
Information on Ralph Chami and his paper, Nature’s Solution to Climate Change
Learn more about endangered whales and how you can help here.
Music from Purple Planet and Freesound.