This study brings key additional evidence to show that the recovery of whale populations will increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of oceanic ecosystems around the globe. The study looked at humpback, grey and right whales and how they feed over vast areas close to the poles during the summer months and then transport nutrients they build up on their bodies, thousands of miles to specific, much smaller areas in the tropics and subtropics in the winter time where they go to breed.

They do this by metabolising their huge blubber stores, shedding skin, giving birth, nursing calves and also via carcasses when they die. These nutrients help to increase productivity and provide food for life in the tropics and subtropics, which are generally nutrient poor. The thousands of tons of nutrients they move nowadays is potentially threes times less than before commercial whaling massively reduced populations. Ecosystems need their full range of wild animals at original baseline levels if they are to function at their maximum capacity.