Whales Are More Important Ecosystems Engineers Than Previously Thought
Published:07 Nov.2021    Source:Stanford University

From 1910 to 1970, humans killed an estimated 1.5 million baleen whales in the frigid water encircling Antarctica. They were hunted for their blubber, baleen -- the filtering fringe they have in place of teeth -- and meat. One might assume that from the perspective of krill -- the tiny shrimp-like creatures the whales feast on -- this would be a boon. But new research published Nov. 4 in Nature from a collaboration led by Stanford University's Goldbogen Lab suggests the opposite: that the decline of baleen whales in the Southern Ocean has led to a decline of krill.

 
This paradoxical result is a sign of just how much the precipitous decline of the large marine mammals has negatively impacted the health and productivity of ocean ecosystems, the researchers say.