1/23 | World whales and dolphins day, allies against climate change. On July 23 of each year, World Whale and Dolphins Day is celebrated. – Alberto Ortiz
Beyond its beauty and majesty, whales and Dolphins They play a key role in the balance of marine ecosystems as well as in mitigation of the Climate changedue to “Very important role” that the oceans perform in the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2), partly thanks to these marine mammals.
Thus, several experts in marine biology, within the framework of the World whales and dolphins day that is commemorated every July 23.
Celia Ojeda, responsible for the Greenpeace Spain Biodiversity Area, explained that in the case of whales they not only regulate the populations of their prey, but also “Fertilize oceans with their excrement”, Which stimulate the growth of phytoplankton: microscopic organisms that consume huge amounts of CO2 and change oxygen.
In the same sense, the Marine Biologist Gianna Haro, of the Environmental Organization Adventure Scientists (adventurous scientists), explained that the largest cetaceans -like the blue or humpback whales – “They migrate a lot, distributing all this fertilizer around the ocean.”
According to WWF data, the phytoplankton captures 40 % of CO2 general emissions and produces at least 50 % of the atmosphere oxygen, which “equals four times the amount generated by the Amazon jungle”.
In addition to fulfilling their part in the decrease of CO2 emissions, the dolphins, “being up in the trophic chain, usually indicate the key of marine health” since their presence and mobility in an area “reflect the state of the ecosystem,” added Ojeda.
An especially threatened sea
Although the ocean absorbs about 30 % of the CO2 generated by human activities and helps “moderate the Climate change”, Haro said that “The large amount of carbon dioxide that currently exists acidification” that does not allow “this plankton to generate its calcareous structure.”
Although this problem affects all the waters of the planet, Silvia Giralt, oceanographer and technique in conservation of the Research Area of the CRAM Foundation, warned that the situation is “especially worrying” in the Mediterranean Sea, where species such as the list of listing and the common rorcual whale are live.
Giralt stressed that the Mediterranean is “the most threatened sea in the world” and this “are not only suffering from cetaceans” but “all marine biodiversity.”
One of the problems that affects them most is plastic pollution, “very high” according to Ojeda, who recalled that “lately it is quite normal” to find in the necropsy of whales and dolphins stranded a “large number of plastics in their stomachs.”
Marine corridors
Contamination can also be acoustic and chemistry, in addition to other impacts such as underwater mining or incidental fishing: “When there are so many threats, it is difficult to quantify which generates a major problem,” Giraralt acknowledged.
The biologist, originally from the Galapagos Islands, defends marine corridors as one of the strategies for the Conservation of these species as they protect migratory routes, reproduction and food areas and reduce risks due to collisions or incidental fishing.
However, its creation and maintenance “They are a complicated step” Because most of these routes cross international waters.
In that sense, Haro highlighted the importance of “laws, conventions and international events”, since “the cetaceans do not stay in one place and the problems that happen affect us all.”
For Ojeda, Spain “is a country that usually fights a lot to protect the oceans” and recalled, for example, that at the recent ocean summit in Nice proposed to create new protected marine areas, although it should increase the effort against plastic pollution.
“We have to keep the oceans because they help us against the fight against climate change, provide us with food and regulate the temperature.”Ojeda summarized.