Recently, we have all been going “green,” trying to save our planet by recycling, planting trees, cleaning litter, and reducing our carbon footprint. Caring for the earth is new to us humans because we just realized how much polluting we have done, but the great sperm whale has been green for thousands of years!

The coolest part about these animals is how they help the environment. A sperm whale saves the environment with his or her dung!

The dung of the 50-foot long creatures is very rich with nutrients and encourages the growth of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are tiny organisms that act like trees by changing carbon dioxide to oxygen. Carbon dioxide makes the planet too warm, but oxygen allows humans, sperm whales, and many other animals to breathe.

The cars that we drive create carbon dioxide, so it is a good thing that we still have sperm whales around. The phytoplankton created by one sperm whale removes the carbon dioxide from 40,000 cars in a year! Since sperm whales can live for 70 years, one whale can do a lot of work for the world.

Sperm whale, thank you for being so green! We can help the whales and Earth by riding bicycles and walking instead of driving.