Whales: Giant Guardians of Marine Ecology and Endangered Treasures

Whales are important indicators of the marine ecosystem, with their excrement containing high levels of iron and nitrogen, providing nutrients for phytoplankton growth, which produces oxygen vital to the Earth’s ecology. At the same time, whales are sensitive to changes in their surroundings and can serve as an early warning signal. However, because of their economic value, cetaceans have been hunted by humans since ancient times, and their numbers have declined dramatically in recent times due to the expansion of hunting, and today they face threats such as pollution of the marine environment and noise pollution, such as marine debris, which causes the deaths of a large number of seabirds and marine mammals each year, and noise, which can interfere with whale communication, feeding and reproduction.