HAPPY EARTH DAY
Today is International Mother Earth Day, a day to remind each of us that the Earth and it's ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance, but also to reflect the challenges in respect to the well-being of our planet and the life it supports.
When we look at the ocean, also our beloved whales play an important role not only to the overall health of the marine environment, but also our planet as a general:
These huge marine mammals sequester an estimated 33 tons of CO2 on average, capturing carbon from the atmosphere and hence playing a significant role in the fight against climate change. Once they die, their bodies sink down to the bottom of the sea, taking that accumulated carbon out of our atmosphere for centuries.
Also, through the way they feed and poo, migrate and dive between the surface and the ocean depths, they circulate nutrients throughout the seas and enrich the surface waters, ensuring a healthy marine ecosystem as well as a constant growth of phytoplankton, which in turns produces about 50% of our planet's oxygen.
Are you ready to meet these incredible gentle giants of the oceans?
- Sarah