Large whales are among the longest-living animals on earth. This enables them to store large quantities of carbon in their bodies. Whales digest and store large quantities of carbon-rich prey and, in turn, exhale little carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This allows whales to keep more carbon in their bodies than trees! One whale can capture an average of 33 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifespan. In comparison, a live oak tree, one of the most efficient carbon-capturing species of tree, can capture approximately 12 tons of carbon dioxide over a maximum 500-year lifespan.
When a whale dies, its body will often sink to the bottom of the ocean, trapping the carbon stored inside of it and can sequester carbon for hundreds to up to thousands of years. Deep-sea organisms depend on decomposing whale carcasses for nutrients. As the whale decomposes and is consumed by deep-dwelling ocean animals, carbon is sequestered in the sediment and recycled through the deep-sea ecosystem, which prevents it from returning to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
