whales are an integral part of marine ecosystems, but do whales have another value to us? Take a look to the Scottish Isles, or Canada's western coast for the answer to this one. Whale watching tourism is a lucrative business and while it's hard to put a value on a species, or on marine biodiversity, it has been estimated that it could generate 413 million US dollars in marine tourism annually. With much of Japan's whaling being located far from it's coast, tourism presents an unlikely alternative to the income from selling whale meat here, but many other whaling nations practice much closer to home, making marine tourism attractive, sustainable and economically viable.
Whales have an important role to play in nutrient cycling. Their poo, for example, makes organic carbon more accessible to smaller organisms. Even a dead whale carcass is important in carbon cycling, particularly the export of carbon to the deep sea. The falling carcass (whale fall) brings carbon acquired at the surface (usually in the form of plankton) to the sea floor as the whale's body (a large carbon reservoir) sinks. The larger the whale, the more carbon-filled tissues it has, meaning that larger whales export more carbon. Whaling has reduced the size of whale populations and the size of whales. It has been estimated that bringing whale populations back to their natural level will mean 1.6 x 105 tonnes of carbon could be exported to the deep sea through whale falls - that works out at over 36 double decker busses worth of carbon per day! This is important in the context of global climate change as this export of carbon to the sediment means it can no longer interact with the atmosphere.