Whales transport skin from the urine, placenta, corpses and skin skin that help keep marine ecosystems healthy, research has shown.
Researchers found that these life-supporting nutrients are produced in animal summer feeding habitats and carry long distances when traveling to winter breeding sites.
This includes migration from high (polar) regions such as Alaska and Antarctica to undernutritional tropical regions such as Hawaii and the Caribbean.
The study said it was published in Nature Communications on Monday, but marked the longest known transport of nutrition by mammals on Earth.
These nutrients help to promote phytoplankton growth. This is a small plant that absorbs enormous amounts of carbon and produces oxygen, which plays an important role in the marine food network.
Researchers saw the input of whale nutrients from urine, skin, corpses and poop at the Humpback Whale National Marine Reserve in the Hawaiian Islands.
They found that whales brought more nitrogen from the feeding ground than natural ocean processes such as flows and bumps.
Overall, this study shows that when grey, humpback and right whales migrate, an estimated 3,784 tons of nitrogen and 46,512 tons of biomass convey an undernutrition coastal region each year from undernutrition coastal regions each year.
Author and whale expert Joe Roman said: “When plants and phytoplankton are the lungs of the planet, they ingest carbon dioxide and expel oxygen, whales and other animals are like the circulation system.
“The movement of nutrients through this ocean, known as the Great Whale Conveyor Belt, can have a major impact on marine ecosystems.”
The study, partially funded by marine charities and international research teams by dolphin conservation, comes after a significant decline in whale populations in the past few centuries due to commercial whaling.
As the country bans commercial hunting, numbers are recovering in some parts of the world, but the study is bolstering debate for their protection, the researchers said.
