Whale feces dioxide which holds an estimated 90% of all sequestered carbon. The Southern Ocean is amongst the largest ranges for phytoplankton and has the characteristic of being nutrient-rich in terms of phosphate, nitrate and silicate, while it is iron-deficient at the same time. Increases of nutrient iron results in blooming of phytoplankton. Whale feces is up to 10 million times richer in iron than the surrounding sea water and plays a vital role in providing the iron required for maintaining phytoplankton biomass on the earth. The iron defecation of just the 12,000 strong sperm whale population in the Southern Ocean results
Whale shark Whale shark The whale shark ("Rhincodon typus") is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of and a weight of about . The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate. It is the sole member of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family Rhincodontidae which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. Before 1984 it was classified as "Rhiniodon" into Rhinodontidae. The whale shark is found in open