DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

“Stamp out Coccolithophores and Penguins” by David Strike

It might be the little things in life that matter, but it’s always the big things that get our attention.

Take whales, for example. Weighing in at a staggering 60,000-plus kilograms, (that’s about 132,000 pounds for the metrically challenged) the mighty Blue Whale is said to be the largest creature that the world has ever produced. And yet our knowledge of their habits (like that of all whales – including the smaller and more prolific Minke whale) is pitifully small and largely restricted to observations made by early whalers who hunted them almost to the point of extinction. Some years ago, Japan’s announcement that they intended to hunt both the Minke and Humpback whales for ‘scientific’ purposes, public opinion came out strongly in favour of the whales with most people expressing condemnation at such unnecessary slaughter.

“People get incensed about the de-forestation of the Amazon jungles, claiming that they generate a significant proportion of the world’s oxygen and that their destruction spells doom for the earth. They forget that more than 50% of the oxygen in our atmosphere (some sources claim 98%) comes from the phytoplankton in our oceans. That same microscopic plant that provides the food source for zooplankton which, in its turn, is eaten by larger creatures such as krill; the tiny shrimp-like creatures that form the staple diet for baleen whales like the Blue, Humpback and Minke whales. And a big whale can munch their way through up to two tons of the stuff a day. “Were you aware,” Krabbmann continued, “that hundreds of millions of years ago, when life on earth first began, the planet’s oxygen levels were as high as 35%! Now look at it; the oxygen content is down to just a little over 20%. If you want my opinion,” (I didn’t, but I got it anyway) “it’s all the fault of the whales and their practice of scoffing down tons of plankton.

That should read, most people apart from my mate, Krabbmann.

“Science and popular opinion seldom see eye to eye,” he said. “And when it comes to whales, the question that you should be asking yourself is: what are whales doing for the planet and the environment?

“With so many of those little coccolithophores and other members of the phytoplankton winding up

31

DIVE LOG Australasia #415 December ‘25

www.divelog.net.au