This year, whalers killed 575 minke whales in Norway, the highest number in five years. Adding that to Grindadrap’s dolphin slaughter last year, human activity wiped out cetacean populations in Scandinavia.
The whaling industry is inherently cruel: approximately 20% of whales suffer 6 to 25 minutes after being harpooned. The whales that survive, as intelligent and social animals, mourn the loss of loved ones. That should be enough to put an end to whaling. But according to scientists, there is another important, yet surprising, reason to protect whale populations: the environment.
According to a recent, marine biology to study, “Whales, especially large whales, play an important role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere”. Each large whale “sequesters 33 tonnes of CO2 on average ”, which is a surprising amount, considering that trees, on average, accumulate less than 50 pounds of CO2 one year. In addition to this carbon sequestration, the vertical and horizontal movements of whales in the ocean stir up nutrients that phytoplankton need to survive. Phytoplankton, in turn, also play a major role in carbon uptake.
The bottom line is that, like most animal rights issues, doing the right thing for animals can also help us save the environment. Sign this petition telling the Norwegian government to end its whaling industry once and for all.
Please also sign this related petition to end the killing of dolphins Grindadrap.
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