[김병민의 사이언스빌리지] Why do whales have to fall from the deep sea?

Byung-Min Kim Science Writer

‘Humanity still knows more about the far side of the moon than the deep sea.’

This is a line from a drama that recently took the top spot in OTT (Over The Top) service. The main character of the drama is a lawyer with autism spectrum disorder, with legal knowledge as well as extensive knowledge of marine whales. The drama centers around defense in the course of a legal battle, but in that context, the story of a whale that is revealed as a clue to solving the case is not very interesting. When I heard the above line, several thoughts came to mind.

We always see only the front side of the moon. Aesthetic meaning and fairy tales were also planted in the beautiful moon’s face. On the other hand, the far side of the moon has traces of so many meteorite impacts, and the moon always turns its front side only to the earth, as if it was deliberately hiding its ugly appearance. The truth is that the moon’s rotation and orbital period are the same. However, it is said that in reality, about 59% of the area of ​​the moon can be seen due to the difference in orbital and rotational speed and the phenomenon of ‘vibration’ that vibrates along the Earth’s axis of rotation. However, it seems that the remaining 41% of mankind was curious. Recently, China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon in the ‘Oceanus Procellarum’ (Oceanus Procellarum) to collect soil and rock samples. In the sample, we found that there was a hydroxyl group bonded to oxygen and hydrogen. Hydroxyl was evidence that there was water on the moon, just as smoke indicates that there was a fire. It is said that mankind can use this opportunity to broaden their understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system. The ocean, which covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, is also water. And there are many living things.

In the drama, the main character told us about the life of whales that we did not know about, such as the type and appearance of whales, and their physiological activities. For example, whales feed from the deep sea and come up to shallow waters to spit out red-colored feces. The red color is due to the krill, the prey. In fact, whales act as a ‘pump’ that pumps deep-sea organic matter into the glazed layer, which lacks nutrients for single-celled organisms and plants, into photosynthetic surface water. In particular, it is a trigger for the growth of phytoplankton. But even this is probably the same as the front side of the moon. Thanks to scientists who love the sea, we already know a little bit about the life of marine whales. However, many people still know more about the far side of the moon, and there is a lot more they don’t know about the oceans and deep seas that can be reached in a few hours. Among them, we only see a small portion of the world’s largest animal, the whale, which roams the deep and surface, as well as the entire ocean.

Bali beach in July 2019. photo = Kim Byung-min

I came across the term “whalefall” in a book I read recently. It is said that 690,000 whales fall into the sea at this time as well. However, the seemingly unfortunate events of death and burial are essential phenomena for marine ecosystems. Because the whale’s death was the beginning of another life for a deep-sea creature. Whales must fall from the deep sea to feed other living things and maintain the marine ecosystem. Nature seems to have coded the whale’s genes to end its life in the deep sea. By the way, the book begins with a whale that washed up on the beach, not the deep sea. Beneath the whale’s thick skin, a layer of fat called a blubber wraps around its body. The blubber of the mammalian whale plays a role in maintaining body temperature as well as waterproofing in the sea, but whales exposed to the sun on the ground ripen alive because of the blubber. Gravity plays a major role in a whale’s descent into the deep sea.

A whale’s massive skeleton allows it to descend to the depths of the ocean with the help of gravity. However, outside the sea, it becomes a weapon to harm itself. On the ground, the whale’s spine and ribs press and crush the whale’s intestines and flesh. I’ve never seen a giant whale in the sea, but if you do, you’d think it should be ruled by a controlled force of nature that goes beyond human life science knowledge and power. However, the reason for the death of such a mysterious being in a strange place, not in the deep sea, was not special. It was all because of the plastic waste we threw away. Ordinary things that we used for convenience in our daily life and things that we neglected like junk mail filled the whale’s stomach. It is said that a single plastic greenhouse was in the boat of a sperm whale washed up on the beach. Most of the whales that are washed ashore helplessly do not return to the sea. It is said that euthanasia is the mercy of mankind to a painfully dying mammal, but the lethal poison remains for a long time and adversely affects the natural creatures that are the wild corpses.

In fact, this isn’t the first time a disaster has happened to whales. The 19th century was hell for whales. Sperm whales have a large, blunt head with a spermatozoon organ, and there is a waxy liquid that sperm whales make noises in, and this oil illuminates the night of the nobility. In fact, the first production of an artificial compound similar to polychlorinated biphenyl (aka PCB), known as the first plastic, was not coal, but whale blubber. It was refined and used as a lubricant for the industrial revolution. Written by American novelist Herman Melville, is a novel about the overfishing of sperm whales at the time. The next period was even more cruel to the whales. Behind the world war in the early 20th century, it is also known as the ‘War of Chemists’ because it was a battle using poison gas. The fate of chemistry wasn’t all that bad, as war played a prominently central role in chemistry in the scientific community.

In the aftermath of the war, the giant chemical companies were not shut down or destroyed. Rather, it has formed a huge and powerful company. During this period, we presented a powerful start to the polymer field to future generations. After the Cold War, neoliberalism swept through, and along with industrial development, plastics, heavy metals, and pesticides fill the ocean. It happened less than a hundred years ago. Whales take deep breaths with their huge lungs and usually spend an hour or so in the water. When the pressure of the water increases, oxygen is pushed out of the lungs and spread throughout the body. Inhaled heavy metals and toxic pollutants accumulate in the fat layer of the body. Whales themselves become environmental pollutants.

Whales are social animals. Whales are said to have complex brains that are capable of abstract thinking and are inherently time- and self-conscious, as seen in the loving care of their young. In the 19th century, whaling boats are said to have first tossed a harpoon at a baby whale. I used it as bait. Afterwards, numerous harpoons fly to the mother who was hovering around her suffering child.

If so, wouldn’t he be aware of pain as well as death? Could such abuse of other species be tolerated just because it is Homo sapiens? Who created the human right to treat animals like this? Already, the chemical composition of the ocean has changed. The extinction of corals in tropical seas is proof of that. The rising ocean temperature and oxygen loss due to global warming, and the pressure of acidification caused by absorption of carbon dioxide, are reminiscent of the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Permian period about 250 million years ago. It is said.

Humanity prides itself on its status as an ethically wrapped primate, a final predator, but this is probably a self-made authority to defend against some sort of cosmic ethic. If this status is true, wouldn’t it be a point where you should feel real tension in the cosmic order? In the vast universe, a living creature that has never even crossed the solar system reigns at the top of the pyramid with a desire to break through the glass ceiling on a dust-sized planet, acting like a god who set the cosmic order, but in the end, human beings are only subject to this order.

When I went to Bali, Indonesia in July, the summer of the year the Corona 19 virus appeared, I remembered something. It is a so-called surf paradise. But at the time, the beach before my eyes was like hell. The beach was covered with an indescribable amount of plastic waste. I still have pictures of that time. No one has ever seen a blue whale as big as an airplane give birth. Does the sea keep the whale’s secret? Or do we just think we don’t have to search through the trash cans anymore? Will the drama’s lawyer change perceptions and influence the resolution of the environmental agenda? Now that drama and reality are separated, is it unreasonable to hope that the whale syndrome will break through the drama and become a discourse?

Byung-Min Kim, Adjunct Professor at Hallym University’s Nano Convergence School