Comment by throwaway_pdp09

Whales do considerably more, like recyling iron to the surface where it's needed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale's_faeces

I'd expect the narrow population bottleneck they've been pushed through (down to 150 individuals) would leave them with much less genetic diversity. That could be a serious and very long term problem (or not).

Irrelevant fact: whales can get flu (coronaviruses). Just FYI