There is a study, which says that baleen whales can eat three times as much.

There are many different types of whales living in the world, one of which is the baleen whale. A new study has found that baleen whales, including blue whales and humpback whales, are reported to eat an average of three times as much krill and other foods.

Plant phytoplankton, which support krill and many other parts of the food web, depend on that iron. Restoring whale populations to pre-whaling levels can help improve ecosystems and store more carbon in the oceans.

This was reported by researchers in the journal Nature on November 4, 2021 yesterday. Seeing this, Joe Roman, a marine ecologist at the University of Vermont at Burlington, who was not involved in the study, commented.

"It's hard to know what role whales play in an ecosystem without knowing how much they eat," he said.

Assessing the exact diet of this huge creature is not an easy task. Previous estimates relied on dissecting dead whales or inferring the whale's metabolic needs based on its size. Seeing this, Matthew Savoca, a marine biologist at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, gave his comment.

"This study is a guess, and nothing has been done on live whales in the wild," he said.

"But new technology gives us the opportunity to answer very basic biological questions about some of the most charismatic animals on earth." he continued.

After conducting their research, they found that baleen whales eat, on average, three times more than previously thought. For example, a blue whale can shed 16 metric tons of krill in a day. Energy-wise, that's the equivalent of 10 million to 20 million calories or about 30,000 burgers.

However, whales don't eat that much every day. However, the sheer amount of food they consume and excrete suggests that whales are shaping marine ecosystems to a greater extent than previously thought.