It was a very selfish thought in the first place. But following that dream, I started to educate myself on the importance of these mammals. Learning about the importance of these giants, especially when it comes to the ‘whale pump’, has turned my world around and I started making more conscious decisions in my everyday life. Here’s what I learned.

For decades, whales have been in danger of extinction, a fate that was mainly caused by humans – and continues to be mainly caused by humans. However, there are options to help these mammals adapt to the damage to their population numbers caused in the past. Whales play a vital role in our marine ecosystem, and they are keeping us alive. Today, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list includes five cetacean species and 19 subpopulations of cetaceans classified as ‘Critically Endangered’.

The so-called great whales are some of them. The term refers to 13 large cetacean species, including blue, fin, sperm, Southern right, North Atlantic right, North Pacific right, bowhead, humpback, gray, sei, Bryde’s, Antarctic minke, as well as common minke whales. They are all baleen whales, with the exception of the sperm whale, a toothed whale. Great whales have been a target of whaling throughout history due to human consumption of their oil and the uses of their different body parts. Climate change, ship strikes, polluted water, and a lack of knowledge when disposing of fishing nets are some of the threats all whale species, and especially the great whales, face today.