With human civilization, hunting was always a task performed even in Stone Age to get benefits from the wild life. Be it if form of food or fulfilling other pursuits. So as the process of whaling. Throwback to 1864, when whaling emerged as a thriving industry. It made up to $10 million for the economy of United States. But soon due to over hunting, people came up with strong logical explanations to stop killing the whales for serving humanly pursuits.
Whale hunting is often linked to carbon i.e. the less whales hunted, less would be the amount of carbon on the atmosphere, making earth way healthier. Whales were hunted for the sake of whale meat that could be used for mass feeding, the oil which could be employed for lubricating the machinery or could be used in energy production. The whale intestine could be used as a precursor for making the perfumes and yes last but not the least, their flexible cartilage could be used to make corsets and umbrellas. With all these utterly important attractions of whaling, one could clearly understand to how much extent, whale were killed.
But just imagine, how important these whales could be for marinating the marine ecosystem. If depleting them from their ecosystem, these whales serves to be on top of their food chain and act as the apex predators. No whales means the whole system would be disrupted, ending up in trophic cascade. The whales not only eat the fish rather they maintain their populations. Planktons and carbon dioxide are other two important parameters. Whale’s fecal material also pours out important nutrients like iron and nitrogen which serve as fertilizer for plant planktons that in turn feeds fish and krill.

Giving life to planktons and trapping that extra dose of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, whales are conserving the environment and clean it up to an extent that could breed healthier organisms. This episode of Earthy Perks is all about an important question that what would happen if we never started hunting whales?

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