Don't kill whales, scientists warn

A century of hunting can be published more than 100 million tons - and deserves a large forest's - of carbon in the atmosphere, scientists say.

Whales store carbon in their huge body and when she died, much of this carbon could be released.

U.S. scientists have demonstrated their estimates of carbon released from whaling in Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, United States.

Dr. Andrew Pershing, University of Maine describes whales as forests "of the sea".

Dr. Pershing and his colleagues from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has calculated that the annual carbon storage capacity of whales, as they developed.

"Whales, like all other animals or plants on the planet, are made of a sack of coal," he said.

"And if we kill and remove the whale from the sea, which is the removal of carbon from this system of storage and possibly to send into the atmosphere."

He stressed that, especially in the early days of whaling, the animals are a source of lamp oil, which was burned, releasing carbon into the air directly.

"This marine system is unique, because if the whales die [naturally], their bodies sink, so the Take That of carbon on the bottom of the sea.

"If you die where it is deep enough, will be [saved] from the atmosphere, perhaps hundreds of years."

Ocean trees

In their first calculation, the team that worked 100 years of whaling an equal amount of carbon combustion 130000 km squares in temperate forests, or 128,000 Humvees released for the continuous striving for 100 years.

Dr. Pershing noted that this is a relatively small amount compared to the billions of tons produced by human activities each year. But he said the whales an important role in the preservation and transport of carbon have played in the marine ecosystem.

Simply by leaving large groups of whales to grow, he said, could "sequester" the greenhouse gases at a level comparable with some of the schemes of afforestation which earn and sell carbon credits.

He suggested that such a system of carbon credits can be applied to whales and rebuild their stocks.

"The idea would be to a full accounting of carbon stocks can be stored in a warehouse fully populated with fish and whales, and which countries their share of fish, such as selling carbon credits," he explained.

"You can use these credits as an incentive to reduce fishing pressure or the maintenance of some of these species to promote."

Other scientists said it was an exciting and interesting question raised.

Professor Daniel Costa, a marine researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told BBC News: "There are many groups looking at the importance of these large animals in the carbon cycle.

"And it is one of those things that if you look, you think: 'This is so obvious, why do not we think that?". "

It is bigger better?

Dr. Pershing said that whales, with their enormous size, are more efficient than smaller animals to store carbon.

He used the analogy of a small dog than a big dog.

"6 pounds (2.7 kilograms of my wife) toy poodle eats one cup of food per day and my dog - a standard poodle 60 pounds - eat five cups a day to eat," he said.

"It is five times more food, but my dog weighs ten times as much."

Said that the idea of marine carbon credits can be applied to other large marine animals, including endangered bluefin tuna and white sharks.

Dr. Pershing said: "These are huge and they are top predators, so unless they are caught, they would probably take their biomass to the bottom of the sea