World's 1st sperm whale reserve protects 'carbon heroes' of the sea
Marine protected area aimed at a unique population of sperm whales off the coast of Dominica
Snowman, Fruit Salad, Soursop and all their finned friends will have a better chance of survival thanks to the creation of the world's first marine reserve for sperm whales.
These are just a handful of the approximately 500 sperm whales who make their home in about 35 tight-knit family groups off the coast of Dominica.
And if the country's new legislation works as intended, it will remain their home for generations to come.
"The eastern Caribbean clan — all of the whales that speak the same dialect here, that live their life in a unique way — need to be protected at the local level," whale biologist Shane Gero, founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
Gero, a scientist-in-residence at Ottawa's Carleton University who frequently works with the whales in Dominica, is an advisor to the Dominica government on this project. While it protects just a fraction of the ocean's 800,000 remaining sperm whales, he's hopeful it will have an impact.
"It turns out that these cultural traditions, the secrets they've learned from their grandmother's grandmother and not in their genetic code, is one of the reasons that these animals survive," he said.
How sperm whales fight climate change
Their survival, he says, is not just important for the species, but for all of us.
That's because sperm whales, Gero says, play a role in the fight against climate change — especially this population.
He says it all comes down to two things: pooping and dying.
"What's happening is that the animals are eating deep sea squid, you know, 850 metres below the surface in pitch darkness. And then they're coming to the surface and defecating or pooping at the surface because, actually, poop is very buoyant, and so if you want to do a dive down to 800 metres, it's good to leave that behind," Gero said.
What they leave behind leads to the growth of plankton blooms, microscopic plants and animals that live on the surface of the water.
"They're essentially, you know, fertilizing the surface waters of the ocean," Gero said, noting that sperm whales off Dominica defecate more than their brethren elsewhere on the planet — though scientists don't yet know why.
The blooms capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and when they die, that carbon rains down to the ocean's depths.
"Just this one species, you know, is helping us to fight climate change by sequestering excess carbon into the oceans," Gero said.
"So we're conserving a local community here to act, you know, as carbon heroes, if you will, on our behalf."
From 2 million to 800,000
Sperm whales worldwide are frequently hit by ships, entangled in fishing gear and affected by agricultural runoff. They are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and endangered under the American Endangered Species Act.
In the pre-whaling days, an estimated two million sperm whales roamed the Earth's deep waters before they were hunted for oil used to burn lamps and lubricate machinery. Now, some 800,000 are left.
The sperm whale families who live off Dominica feed into the global population, Gero says. They live in matrilineal family groups of seven to eight members. Mothers, daughters and granddaughters stay together for life, while young males eventually leave and can take up residence in different oceans.
The new marine protected area encompasses nearly 800 square kilometres on the western side of the island nation that serve as key nursing and feeding grounds.
Commercial fishing will be forbidden within the area. Some subsistence fishing will be permitted, subject to sustainability guidelines. Visitors can still swim with sperm whales and see them from a boat, but in limited numbers.
The government says it will delineate an international shipping lane to prevent the creatures from dying in collisions with vessels.
"We want to ensure these majestic and highly intelligent animals are safe from harm and continue keeping our waters and our climate healthy," Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a statement.
Marine scientist Enric Sala, an explorer-in-residence at National Geographic, welcomed the move.
"The government of Dominica has realized that the sperm whales, which were probably here before humans, are also citizens of Dominica," he said.
"These whales will spend most of the year offshore the island. So, they are taking care of some of their citizens in a way that few nations have ever done before."
Gero says the whales off Dominica have their own customs and history, including unique vocalizations not heard elsewhere.
"The whales that live off the island literally spend a lot of time broadcasting that they are from Dominica," Gero said.
"The Dominica government has taken really strong action here to preserve part of their natural heritage, but also part of what already is an economic contributor to their sustainable development."
With files from The Associated Press. Interview with Shane Gero produced by Katie Geleff
