I open my inbox in the morning and there amongst all of the other emails is the subject line, “whale poop images.”  Well, this should be an interesting start to the day.  I think about the photographer we purchased the photos from, it had to be an assignment. Who would take whale fecal photos as stock images hoping that someone like Joe Roman would come along looking for them? Another email comes through from Joe updating us on his Sitka wanderings, letting us know that he’s now known as “the whale poop guy” in town, but “there are worse things to be known for.”  

I didn’t expect this to be the research I would find when I started at the Gund two years ago, but like many things in life, unexpected surprises are often the best. In what I’m coming to recognize as Joe’s signature style, there’s serious science behind his attention-getting catch phrases.  His most recent publication, “Whales as Marine Ecosystem Engineers” in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, furthers Joe’s research into the roles of whales in engineering ocean ecosystems. 

For a long time, whales have been considered too rare to make much of a difference in the oceans, and the focus of much marine ecological research has been on smaller organisms, such as algae and planktonic animals.  These small organisms are essential to life in the sea, but they are not the whole story.  As commercial whaling decimated whales starting in the 1800s, we lost not only whales but also the important ecosystem functions they provide.  Among their many ecological roles, whales recycle nutrients and enhance primary productivity in areas where they feed.  As long-lived species, they enhance the predictability and stability of marine ecosystems.  And when they die, cetaceans, the largest animals in the history of life on Earth, sequester carbon in the deep sea and support dozens, possibly hundreds, of species that depend on these whale falls in the deep sea.  

As we see effective legislation improve the plight of many whale species, facilitating their recovery, what are the impacts that we may see?   Joe and his colleagues find that the continued recovery of great whales may help reduce the impacts of climate change, by maintaining the stability of marine ecosystems, and more whales could increase rates of productivity in areas where they feed and give birth. 

Most days the environmental news that comes across the wire is so depressing, it’s great to get two pieces of good news.  Some whales are recovering, and their recovery isn’t just good for the whales, it’s good for the ocean, and that’s good for us. Congratulations to Joe, James Estes, Lyne Morissette, Craig Smith, Daniel Costa, James McCarthy, J. B. Nation, Stephen Nicol, Andrew Pershing, and Victor Smetacek on their encouraging and important publication.