WHALES TO THE RESCUE

A look at the many ways whales serve as “ecosystem engineers,” even on a planetary scale.

With the riveting declaration that “whale poop makes the world go round!” Mason launches an effervescent study of how whales affect oceanic food webs—not only by participating in “a massive poop pump” that feeds krill and phytoplankton on the surface, but by taking significant quantities of climate-changing carbon out of the air to store it in their bodies while alive and “export” it to the bottom of the ocean when dead. Along with overviews of food chains, the carbon cycle, and the greenhouse effect, plus a case study involving the interdependence of baleen whales and krill in the Antarctic and gobsmacking facts (fin whales pee 257 gallons a day! One mouthful of krill provides a blue whale with roughly the same calories as 83,000 peanuts!), the author tucks in basic information about whale types and behavior on the way to a compelling conclusion that no, they aren’t going to accomplish a “rescue” alone…but they “have a role to play, and so do we.” Smith mixes helpful schematics with views of whales of various species gracefully feeding, breaching, or, yes, pooping. In rare glimpses, tiny humans, when they’re not clad in wetsuits, appear diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Makes a whale of a case for the importance of cetaceans.