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.
Life of refinement 