London, Whales store more carbon than one thousand trees over their lifetime, but many are endangered and threats are growing, scientists warn.
The world’s first ever global map of whale migration patterns has been published, shining a light on the increasing threats to these endangered creatures of the deep.
Scientists have combined satellite tracking data from 845 whales, collected over 30 years, and mapped it alongside the various and growing dangers whales face. Those dangers show bottleneck areas that need to be addressed most urgently.
Dr. Simon Walmsley, Chief Marine Adviser at WWF UK, said that one map speaks a multitude of words and on the paper one could see where things should be done to tackle those issues.
Whales are known as the “sentinel species” of the sea, reflecting ocean health and warning of risks to human health, but six of the 13 “great whale” species are considered endangered.
The dangers imposed on whales include entanglement in fishing gear, which kills 300,000 cetaceans a year, plastic pollution that can starve whales that confuse it for food, as well as accidents of collisions between whales and ships.
Dr. Walmsley said that they wanted to visualize the expanse of whale migrations in these superhighways and the connectivity between critical places.
Whales themselves are huge storage units of climate-heating gas carbon dioxide. Whales boost the production of phytoplankton: a tiny life form that forms the basis of the marine food web and can capture 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide.
Dr. Walmsley added that the mapping exercise shows that whales are threatened along the whole length of their migration and which means protecting whales in one place where they congregate is not enough. He further said that whales have to be protected throughout the full length of that migration route because they’re experiencing threats all along, the Sky News reported.
Source: Oman News Agency