What is the deepest-diving mammal?

a Cuvier's beaked whale breaching the surface of the ocean — Cuvier’s beaked whales (*Ziphius cavirostris*) are mammals with the deepest recorded dives. (Picture credit score: HeitiPaves/Getty Photos)

Marine mammals like whales and seals want extremely specialised our bodies to dive far beneath the waves and face up to the crushing stress of the deep ocean, whereas going with out oxygen for an prolonged time period.

That’s as a result of mammals, in contrast to fish, can solely get oxygen by respiration the air on the floor of the ocean.

“For something that breathes air after which forages at depth, you’ve got obtained this actual disparity that the majority animals do not must cope with,” Nicola Fast, a marine scientist at Duke College in North Carolina, advised Reside Science. “One in every of their essential sources, air, is in a single place — and their different essential useful resource, which is meals, is in one other place.”

However which mammal is ready to dive the deepest?

That title probably belongs to Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), mid-size whales that reside in temperate and tropical waters across the globe. In 2010, researchers began strapping satellite tv for pc trackers to those animals off the coast of California to file their actions, they usually uncovered the whales’ astonishing diving talents.

Associated: This colossal extinct whale was the heaviest animal to ever reside

One of many eight whales they tagged dove down 9,816 toes (2,992 meters), equal to about 32 occasions the peak of the Statue of Liberty. What’s extra, the whales might dive for a very long time — one stayed underwater for greater than 2 hours.

In 2020, Fast and her colleagues witnessed a brand new file after observing a Cuvier’s beaked whale staying underwater for 3 hours and 42 minutes. That dive was excluded from the official outcomes of their research as a result of it got here after publicity to sonar, which might have affected the whale’s habits — however the research famous {that a} dive this lengthy could point out “the true limits of the diving habits of this species.”

Fast’s paper famous three issues that will permit whales to perform such lengthy dives. First, their blood has excessive focuss of the proteins myoglobin and hemoglobin, which lets them retailer lots of oxygen. Whales can even restrict how a lot blood flows to the outer elements of the physique to ensure the important organs get sufficient oxygen.

Second, the whales want a gradual metabolism so they do not expend all their oxygen without delay, the research famous. And to assist preserve power, the animals appear to glide lots whereas swimming, Fast famous.

Lastly, the whales in all probability want a method to shortly buffer out the lactic acid their muscle groups produce whereas swimming — though Fast mentioned it is unclear how they may do that .

Deep-diving mammals even have to have the ability to face up to the stress skilled when 1000’s of toes underwater. The toughest issues to maintain open in excessive stress are the lungs, since lungs are pockets of air that might simply collapse beneath intense stress. However diving mammals have the capability to flatten out their lungs as they dive to cut back the quantity of air area they must hold open beneath stress.

Fast mentioned that scientists imagine Cuvier’s beaked whales are foraging for meals whereas they dive, however researchers do not know for certain what they’re consuming within the deep — although one 2017 paper urged it is largely squid.

Different marine mammals can even dive deep beneath the floor. Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), for instance, have been discovered diving to round 6,560 ft (2,000 m) deep — as have sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus).

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.