Whales were once an economic obsession. In the mid-1800s, the oil extracted from the fat that lit the lamps and lubricated the machinery of the Industrial Age was about $63 a gallon in today’s dollars. Whaling fleets have killed hundreds of thousands of blue, fin, humpback and sei whales. Blue whale populations plummeted by 90% in the early to mid-20th century. As whales became scarce, oil prices soared, and the world turned to cheaper products as an alternative. Although it is recovering, threats such as fishing net tangles, ship strikes, and pollution still leave it vulnerable to profit-driven industries.
But these giant mammals could offer a new kind of value to today’s economy. It is the ability to safely trap carbon that contributes to climate warming and support ecosystems that do so on a larger scale. A single whale can support the same amount of carbon storage as thousands of trees. A group of researchers, entrepreneurs and economists are betting on putting a price on whales again. This time, to encourage financial investment in carbon storage services. This helps offset carbon emissions and protect animals. Connel Fullenkamp, a financial economist at Duke University and co-founder of Blue Green Future, one of his organizations participating in the effort, said: It’s called the Whale Carbon Plus Project.
The popular idea is to put a price on forests, coastal seagrasses and other natural resources that absorb carbon and help fight the climate crisis, and allow companies to invest in them to offset their emissions. increase. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicts that demand for carbon credits will grow 100-fold by 2050, and the Biden administration last year said it was working to standardize carbon credits and other natural asset valuations. Announced. However, there are pros and cons to this approach.
Although there is little scientific data on the effectiveness of offsets and such nature-based solutions, several journalistic studies suggest that poorly designed or misused offset programs have limited impact. It has been shown that it can become and even cause damage in some cases. For example, newly planted forests set aside for offset literally went up in smoke during wildfires. Not only does this destroy any hopes of offsetting emissions, it also releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Unlike this type of terrestrial carbon storage, marine and coastal ecosystems can trap carbon for thousands of years. When marine organisms die, they sink to the ocean floor, where carbon is stored in very deep water. Also, carbon stored by vegetation in marine soils cannot enter the atmosphere as easily as carbon stored by surface plants. That’s why investing in blue carbon (carbon stored in the ocean) is attractive for offset projects. “Blue carbon is he one of the closest to a true carbon offset,” says environmental scientist Peter McCready of Deakin University in Australia. He is not involved in the Whale Carbon Plus project. Blue carbon projects often focus on coastal vegetation, but the tiny phytoplankton that serve as the foundation of marine food webs are one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. Whales absorb about 40% of the carbon dioxide produced worldwide each year. Whales aid in the process as their nutrient-rich poop encourages the growth of phytoplankton. Whales also store carbon in their massive bodies and eventually sink to the ocean floor when they die.
Since 2018, a Canadian company called Whale Seeker has been training artificial intelligence algorithms to detect whales in satellite and aerial imagery. Its whale-spotting services are sold to whale researchers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, indigenous groups, and private shipping and mining companies that monitor environmental impacts. “We were already working with organizations that are regulated and mandated to monitor whales,” said Emily Charlie Tissier, co-founder of Whale Seeker, which is also part of the Whale Carbon Plus project. increase. However, existing measures aimed at protecting whales, such as speed limits on ships, are often voluntary. Whale injuries are difficult to track.
So Charlie Tissier looked at how to use the company’s whale detection data to develop a new carbon credit program that would give companies financial incentives to protect whales.
She spoke with an economist at Blue Green Future. The founders of Blue Green Future, including Frenkamp, had experience in assigning monetary values to parts of nature. In a 2019 report, he valued the average living whale at $2 million, a member of a group that includes the 13 largest whale species. This figure is the result of adding the value whales contribute to storing blue herring carbon and enhancing fisheries through nutrients in their faeces to the nearly $2 billion in tourism revenue from whale watching. The amount of carbon whales can sequester in their bodies was estimated using current data on total population biomass and how much whale droppings increase phytoplankton numbers.
The ultimate goal of the Whale Carbon Plus Project is for investors to purchase rights to whale carbon sequestration and other valuable natural services from governments like bonds and receive interest in the form of carbon credits. Investors can use the credits to offset their own carbon footprint or sell them to others to do the same. Income from such investments may be allocated to indigenous and local communities and whale conservation groups. If a ship hits a whale, the government could impose a monetary value on the owner for the loss. Fullenkamp suggests that insurers may bear the fines but may require ships to have whale-detecting devices on board. Whale seeker techniques can also help monitor industry compliance with regulations. It can also help audit whether the carbon credit system is effective. “A lot of what high-quality blue carbon lacks is evidence that the program works and is actually sequestering carbon,” she says.
To that end, Whale Seeker this summer announced a pilot project to study how narwhals benefit the Canadian Arctic ecosystem. The team identified the narwhal from four years’ worth of aerial photographs of him provided by mining company Bafinin Iron Mine. According to Charlie Tissier, such photos are collected as part of a permit requirement and a unique commitment to operating sustainably. Another collaborator, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, is helping fill the gaps with ecological and marine data from its own research. The purpose of the pilot project is to assess where narwhals live, how many there are, and how they help phytoplankton reproduce.
Adrienne Buller, director of research at think tank Common Wealth and author of the book, says better data on how well carbon credit projects are performing could help them succeed. whale valueBut she warns that such projects cannot be seen as a way around work that actually reduces emissions. We keep it pretty much unchanged,” says Buller, who is not involved with the Whale Carbon Plus project. Instead, she argues, nature-based solutions could be the perfect tool for saving emissions that can’t be easily cut.
For some people, their fears about such projects, especially when it comes to intelligent animals like whales, are more acute than numbers. It’s very understandable, and hopefully common, that it’s inherently disgusting,” says Blur.
Fullenkamp said the Whale Carbon Plus Project does not claim ownership of wildlife, only the services that wildlife provides. But he understands the concerns and says the people involved in the project are trying to think through and avoid all potential pitfalls. “You have to be careful about what you do,” he says. Fullenkamp argues that philanthropists and governments cannot provide all the necessary funding for conservation efforts. “The only social organization that can provide that kind of money is the financial market,” he says. McCready agrees. “The private sector needs to fill a huge gap in conservation,” he says.
But even those involved in the new project, who see it as a valuable way to save whales, bemoan the need for it. I wish I had,” says Charlie Tissier. “I want my daughter to be able to see whales in the ocean when she grows up. That’s the main thing that keeps me going.”
