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Oceanic Blue Carbon Infographics

UNEP Blue Forests

By Blue Forests Project

May 7^th, 2021

Oceanic blue carbon is a new concept recognizing how carbon can be fixed and stored in the ocean and seafloor sediments through the actions and influences of living marine organisms (e.g., fish, krill, sea turtles, and marine mammals such as whales and dugongs).

Innovative infographics, developed by GRID-Arendal and partners with support from the UNEP Blue Forests Project, have helped advance discussion of oceanic blue carbon in the arenas of science, economics and policy.

Oceanic blue cabron mecahnisms

The nine oceanic blue carbon mechanisms for marine vertebrates (Lutz et al. 2018). 1) Marine predators help plants to grow by keeping herbivore populations in check. This helps maintain the carbon storage function of coastal vegetation. 2) The swimming movement of marine animals can stir up nutrients towards surface waters. These nutrients can be used by phytoplankton as they grow, absorbing carbon. 3) Bony fish excrete carbon in the form of calcium carbonate. This raises the pH of seawater and potentially provides a buffer against ocean acidification, which is one effect of climate change. 4) All whales dive underwater to feed and return to the surface to breathe. At the surface, they release buoyant fecal plumes that are rich in nutrients that phytoplankton need to grow. 5) Mesopelagic fish migrate towards the surface at night to feed, then return to deep waters during the day. This helps transport carbon to deep waters where it can be released as fecal pellets. 6) Many whales migrate from nutrient-rich feeding grounds to nutrient-poor breeding grounds. At the breeding grounds, whales release nitrogen-rich urea that can stimulate phytoplankton growth. 7) Fish eat and repackage food into carbon-rich fecal pellets that sink rapidly. Fecal material that reaches the deep sea can remain locked away for hundreds to thousands of years. 8) All living things are made of carbon and thus serve as carbon reservoirs throughout their lifespans. The larger and more long-lived the animals, the more carbon is stored. 9) When large marine vertebrates die, their carcasses sink to the seafloor. There, the carbon inside their carcasses can support deep-sea ecosystems and be incorporated into marine sediments.

How much is a whale worth?

"To solve this international public goods problem, we must first ask, What is the monetary value of a whale? Proper valuation is warranted if we are to galvanize businesses and other stakeholders to save the whales by showing that the benefits of protecting them far exceed the cost. We estimate the value of an average great whale by determining today’s value of the carbon sequestered by a whale over its lifetime, using scientific estimates of the amount whales contribute to carbon sequestration, the market price of carbon dioxide, and the financial technique of discounting. To this, we also add today’s value of the whale’s other economic contributions, such as fishery enhancement and ecotourism, over its lifetime. Our conservative estimates put the value of the average great whale, based on its various activities, at more than $2 million, and easily over $1 trillion for the current stock of great whales" (Chami et al. 2019).

Whale carbon and oxygen flux

"In recent years, scientists have discovered that whales have a multiplier effect of increasing phytoplankton production wherever they go. How? It turns out that whales’ waste products contain exactly the substances—notably iron and nitrogen—phytoplankton need to grow. Whales bring minerals up to the ocean surface through their vertical movement, called the “whale pump,” and through their migration across oceans, called the “whale conveyor belt” (Chami et al. 2019).

The whale is an international public good

"Whales produce climate benefits that are dispersed all over the globe. And because people’s benefits from the existence of whales do not diminish the benefits that others receive from them, they are a textbook public good" (Chami et al. 2019).