An unusual environmental approach is making waves. The WhaleX Foundation in Australia aims to mitigate climate change by pouring feces into the sea. Back in 2021, WhaleX and researchers dumped over 300 liters of feces into the ocean. Recently, they plan to pour even more feces into the Tasman Sea near Australia in 2025, approximately five times the amount of the previous attempt, to enhance the ocean’s carbon sequestration capacity.
Rest assured, it’s not human feces but carefully formulated “artificial feces” that mimic the composition of whale feces.
Why whale feces? Whale feces are rich in nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron, which are beneficial for the growth of phytoplankton in the ocean. As phytoplankton grow, they absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. When they die, the carbon they stored sinks to the ocean floor along with them, achieving carbon sequestration.
However, due to commercial whaling and other reasons, the number of whales in the ocean has significantly decreased. Correspondingly, the amount of feces they excrete on the ocean surface has also reduced, affecting the ocean’s carbon sequestration ability. This is why researchers are trying to “replicate” whale feces. The artificial feces designed by the WhaleX team mainly consists of nitrogen, with trace elements such as phosphorus, iron, and silicon dioxide added to closely resemble the composition of whale feces.
This time, they plan to place the artificial feces and seawater in floating containers first, cultivate phytoplankton, and then release the feces covered with phytoplankton into the ocean. Nevertheless, some people are concerned that with such a large amount of feces and phytoplankton being released, the risk of algal blooms in the ocean might increase.