A whale is worth 33 tons of CO2

Whales have massive bodies. And massive bodies store massive amounts of CO2.

An adult whale could weigh a bit more than 100 tons – about the same as the maximum takeoff weight of a Boeing 720. Imagine that.

More importantly for climate, an adult whale could sequester up to 33 tons of CO2 in its body. And when the whale dies and sinks, it carries this massive amount of CO2 along with it to the ocean floor – where the CO2 could stay undisturbed for centuries!

The International Whaling Commission reports there are about 1.5 million whales swimming around in the world’s oceans – with only about 15,000 of them being blue whales, the largest of the whale species.

The CO2 sequestration potential of whales have recently come into the climate action discussion – so much that there are some who are demanding a massive increase in whale population worldwide to combat climate change!