Blue whales can eat up to eight tons of krill per day, and that krill is then turned into a sensational amount of, um, whale waste. Gross, right? Well, consider this: Whale poop may actually play an important role in mitigating the effects of climate change, according to University of Vermont researchers.
In a paper published this month in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the biologists write that large whales stabilize ocean ecosystems by helping to "recycle nutrients." More specifically, they feed deep in the ocean and then swim toward the surface to go number two. The process, to borrow the science community's euphemism, is known as a "whale pump."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - February 16, 2025Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - welcome mat, goodbye aid, and more
-
5 preposterously funny cartoons about Trump's plan for the Gaza RivieraCartoons Artists take on a new solution, a special operation, and more
-
Mountains and monasteries in ArmeniaThe Week Recommends An e-bike adventure through the 'rare beauty' of the West Asian nation
-
Scientists report optimal method to boil an eggSpeed Read It takes two temperatures of water to achieve and no fancy gadgets
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energySpeed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocketSpeed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials saySpeed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was rightSpeed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular storiesSpeed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an oceanSpeed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mindSpeed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
