fiery grave: Jason X35: Veraam:Now, if EVERY whale in the world can get a fill of 3-5 million tons of krill a day, then how much d*mn krill IS there in the ocean??? Entire MILES of ocean are turned blood-red with the krill each day, just to get mopped up by whales the same day.
So tell me: If whales go extinct, then what's going to stop krill from turning our blue planet red?
Imagine an Earth where what was once blue ocean is now red, the top covered in krill...
Again...kinda over-reacting and not thinking the argument through very well. Krill is a small creature that is basically a tiny shrimp. Whales aren't the only thing that eat them. Penguins, squid, seals, fish, and other marine animals eat them as well. But let's assume for a second that only whales eat them. What would happen, you might ask? Will the oceans of the world turn red? Nope.
Their population is dependent upon micro-organisms called phyto- and zoo-plankton. The phyto-plankton rely on sunlight for energy, and the zoo-plankton feed off of them. If the krill population grew "uncontrollably", as you proposed, then it would reach a point when its population would no longer be sustained by these food sources. Thus, the population would drop until it reached a stable equilibrium position. This doesn't even account for the percentage of surface required for the phyto-plankton to inhabit in order to absorb enough sunlight to survive. That is to say, even if you maxed out the number of krill on the assumed number of phyto-planton right now, the population would still be unstable because some of the krill would kill the phyto-plankton by blocking their source of nutrients.
Let's not even get in to how only a certain number of organisms could be sustained by the oxygen dissolved in the oceans as well and how the color of the ocean is based upon the molecular make-up of water, not the organisms living in it...
wait I thought the ocean was blue because it reflected the bending light of the sun in the sky? thats why most water in side is clear not blue
Edit: Kinda pointless and off topic I know but I am wondering
Nah, that's all right. It's actually some simple quantum physics (not joking). As you may know, the atom is constructed by *three main components: the neutrons and protons in the nucleus of the atom, and the electrons orbiting the nucleus.
The orbits of the electrons aren't random. Given the chance, the electrons will orbit closest to the nucleus, and this position is known as their "ground state". The electrons themselves are moving at very fast speeds, and this, combined with their near-zero mass, allows them to actually behave like waves. Because of this, they are restricted to specific regions where they can generally be found orbiting the nucleus. When photons (light) interact with the electrons, it "excites" (or gives energy to) them, and as a result them move up to their next energy level. When these electrons get "tired" they release the energy and move back to their ground state.
Now, because the electrons act like waves when orbiting the nucleus, they require certain thresholds of energy from the photons. That is to say, they can't receive half of the energy to make it to an energy level and then stop there, they need all of it to move or they just stay put. This quantative interaction of mass and matter is what gives us the term "quantum" in quantum physics. Similarly, when the electrons drop down to their ground state they release a specific amount of energy in the form of photons that are different from the ones they absorbed.
Because each molecule, atom, or other structure is different from one another, the way electrons orbit the structures are different too. Thus, the energy emitted by different substances is different, so the visible color is different. That's why things are the color they are. In the case of water, the color is blue, but there's one catch-22. The molecules of water are lose (more so than some other fluids), so they allow a lot of light to pass through. This is why a small sample of water is clear, but the larger the sample, the bluer the color.
If you're having a hard time understanding this, think of fire. The hotter it burns (i.e. the more energy levels that the electrons in the air move up) the different the color.
*Note: The atom is composed of other structures as well but for simplicity we're just talking about the common three.