Blue whale poop

Photo by Eddie Kisfaludy. Taken from Wired.

The waters were rich in krill, the tiny crustaceans on which blue whales feed, and their orange hue was brightly visible in a fecal plume he photographed. It’s hard to judge absolute distances from the photo, but in scale the deposit is nearly as long as a full-grown blue whale.

It may well be the world’s largest documented poop. It’s also an exclamation point to a line of research pursued in recent years by marine biologists who say whales are the ocean’s unappreciated gardeners, playing enormous roles in nutrient and carbon cycles. In short — or perhaps in long — their poop helps make the aquatic world go round.

via The Hidden Power of Whale Poop | Wired Science | Wired.com.

Thanks to Dan Weiss and his morning coffee links for the connection.