Friday curiosity: Duck-diving Cuvier’s beaked whales can hold their breath for over two hours, and reach a depth of 2 miles (3.2 km) underwater. What’s more, when they come up, they recover in an unbelievable two minutes. (Actually, I really do find this hard to believe. Two minutes? Seriously? )
Cuvier Beaked Whale | Oceanus Magazine Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
These whales can go four times deeper than modern nuclear submarines which are estimated to have a hull crush depth of around 730m. Presumably the Department of Defence will be looking into blubber power or nuclear whales.
But seriously, whales and seals can hold their breath for a ridiculously long time because they pack a lot of oxygen away in their muscles — it’s attached to myoglobin which they have in abundance. Myoglobin‘s quite a lot like the haemoglobin molecule found in blood, it uses iron to bind the oxygen.
For a completely useless culinary tip, whale meat is thus the absolute reddest-of-red-meats and very iron rich — “perfect” then, for anemic vegetarians.
Scientists monitored Cuvier’s beaked whales’ record-breaking dives to depths of nearly two miles below the ocean surface and some dives lasted for over two hours, according to results published March 26, 2014, in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Gregory Schorr from Cascadia Research Collective and colleagues.
Distributed throughout the world’s oceans, the Cuvier’s beaked whales’ frequent dives deep into the ocean make them difficult for researchers to study. Previous studies using short-term tags (~ 215 hours of data) have indicated that this deep-diving species might be the most extreme breath-holding diver in the ocean. To better understand this behavior, scientists analyzed data from satellite-linked tags that recorded the diving behavior and locations of eight Cuvier’s beaked whales off the Southern California coast. Researchers collected over 3,700 hours of diving data, including depth and time of each dive.
Researchers recorded 1100 deep-dives, averaging 0.87 miles deep, and 5600 shallow-dives, averaging about 0.17 miles deep. The deepest dives recorded was one that reached nearly two miles below the ocean surface, and the longest lasted 137 minutes. The dives captured by this study not only exceed the previous Cuvier’s beaked whale diving records of ~1 mile deep and 95 minutes, but also the current mammalian dive record previously set by the southern elephant seal at ~1.5 miles deep and 120 minutes. One striking difference compared to other divers is that deep-diving elephant seals and sperm whales require an extended recovery period after long, deep dives, whereas Cuvier’s beaked whales average less than two minutes at the surface between dives.
According to the authors, the results of this study provide a better understanding of the unique diving capabilities of this species, which accounts for 69% of recorded marine mammal strandings associated with military sonar operations. However, all eight whales were tagged on a Navy sonar training range off the west coast of California and spent significant portion of their time there, suggesting that these animals may have learned to cope with anthropogenic disturbances that cause stranding in Cuvier’s beaked whales elsewhere. “It’s remarkable to imagine these social, warm-blooded mammals actively pursuing prey in the darkness at such astounding depths, literally miles away from their most basic physiological need: air,” added Greg Schorr
*Move on the Seawolf-class sub, say hello to the Seawhale. I hear the Seawolfs may soon not have so many Tomahawks to fire anyway, in which case, wolf-whale: what’s the difference?
REFERENCE
Schorr GS, Falcone EA, Moretti DJ, Andrews RD (2014) First Long-Term Behavioral Records from Cuvier’s Beaked Whales (Ziphius cavirostris) Reveal Record-Breaking Dives. PLoS ONE 9(3): e92633. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092633
I bet they’re having a whale of a time!
20
I love the way people are amazed at the depth of the dive (3.2km) and the time underwater (2 hrs). Now that’s a minimum return trip of 6.4km, a long way and much further if not straight down. So you have to expect the round trip would take at least an hour or two any if the whale did not stop for a rest and to check emails at the bottom and did not want to explode on the way up. I guess the first question, the eternal question is why? That is the bottom of the ocean in most places, so maybe we should not be too surprised that the whale stopped going down? Maybe it dropped something? Perhaps the answer is the same as in why did the chicken cross the road? I never cease to be amazed at man’s ability to be amazed.
70
They are probably forced to go so deep, in their search for Trenberth’s missing heat.
Presumably they also release CO2 at depth, thereby lowering the alkalinity of the water in their immediate vicinity. Ban the Whales, that’s what I say.
201
–
“They are probably forced to go so deep, in their search for Trenberth’s missing heat.”
–
Rereke, you remind me of Bob Hudson’s ‘Newcastle Song’…(‘Don’t you ever let a chance go by’)
–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZSSYqHYjxY
31
Searching for it? They found it and they’re lovin’ it.
http://i.imgur.com/3guFRgD.png
40
The Japanese, responsible environmentalists that they are, have been trying to rid the world of these noxious pests, while the looney left thugs and wanted criminals have been trying to stop this pro-environment programme.
21
I used to be a commercial diver and did a lot of winter diving in alpine lakes ( hydro power stations etc). It was truly wonderful feeling to take a pee in one’s wetsuit and enjoy the pissing heat!
Sorry folks, its just my inner whale recalling the good times from before I was beached.
40
Why exactly? These are warm blooded air breathing animals. If they only surface for 2 minutes every couple of hours they are effectively living in black dark water close to 0 degrees cold, at incredibly high pressure, and a kilometer away from air.
Evolution pushing the bounds. Can anyone explain why their lungs don’t collapse? Or perhaps their lungs do, and they can reinflate them on the way back up? If the object is squid hunting, what are the squid living on?
61
Q. What are the squid living on?
A. Dead whales.
This paper might benefit from a model of the energetics. You can calculate the latent energy of a plausible volume of air that can be inhaled for energy exchange during the breathing time. You can do a rough approx. of the energy required to lift the weight of the whale from depth to surface, you can get a handle on the drag of water on moving body, you can estimate the rate of heat loss from whale to water, etc etc and so see if the rough energy budget balances.
My guess is that on the figures you gave, there would be a deficit. But then, if they have confident, verifiable measurements, as usual a guess means nothing because data trumps belief.
50
I imagine their bouyancy is close to neutral so there should only be drag losses. There should be no net change in potential energy.
10
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-deep-diving-sea-cr/
As expected, the lungs have to collapse and other spaces filled with fluid/mucous. Stomach, intestines too and they probably flood their systems with water to kill any bouyancy or descent would be impossible or very hard work. The respiratory systems must stop working but the sheer size of the cardio system with man size arteries means that the animals can survive without breathing as we would know it, as they have to do anyway under the water for long periods. With animals this size, you have to wonder how long it takes oxygen to get to tissues anyway, so there is a lot in transit.
The puzzle is why they do it. Four degrees is more likely at 3200metres but it could be a lot warmer. There is every chance this whale followed a warm current down just as eagles soar. He may have been following something delicious, or just inquisitive like most mammals or maybe he dropped his watch?
40
Veins that a human can swim through, testes as big as a mini and now flatulence that could inflate a Zeppelin.
10
Heck for all we know the reason they go down so deep for so long is that they are playing a game of chicken.(as good a reason as any other)
10
Was hoping to find the entire program online, but not to be: http://video.pbs.org/video/2185065525/
Great necropsy of a sperm whale. Deep diving means the rib cage folds up like a concertina. The sperm oil becomes a solid under just the slightest increase in pressure and when the wahle wants to surface, it can turn the sperm oil liquid to increase buoyancy slightly.
00
The lungs of cetaceans have evolved to collapse almost completely under pressure. They re-inflate when the whale surfaces. The whale doesn’t notice the pressure because it’s body is effectively an incompressible fluid. Th ears and skull sinuses are also filled with wax to resist pressure.
00
What happens to metabolism efficiency at pressure? I know that plants grow with better efficiency, requiring less water, when CO2 levels are higher, i.e. partial pressure of CO2 is higher. What happens when the pp O2, pp N2 and pp CO2 not to mention the rest of their body chemistry get multiplied by a factor of 100?
00
Whale poop?
00
I’ve modelled a Curviers beaked whale and the model can’t do this. I think that the observations must be incorrect. 😉
00
… Observations will be adjusted to better fit the model, of course.
00
TdeFMarch 29, 2014 at 1:43 am
I love the way people are amazed at the depth of the dive (3.2km) and the time underwater (2 hrs)…..[….]…. I never cease to be amazed at man’s ability to be amazed.
I am amazed that you are amazed that people are amazed by this incredible feat! (Sorry!) 😉
But really is
amazingincredible to think they can function at 300 atmospheres where mankind’s puny (normal) submarines would be crushed instantly. We seem to take so much for granted these days; I can remember when it was revealed some birds (puffins)’fly’ underwater and it sounded quite unbelievable. But now we see video of that and the penguin’s similar skills every few weeks in our lounge-room televisions.It is hard to imagine the whale’s heart does any functional pumping at that pressure, .. perhaps it goes into a suspended state with all that myoglobin helping out. But how can it possibly replenish the supply to all that oxygenated muscle in two minutes?
00
Yes, the pressure is incredible, at one atmosphere every ten metres, that is 300+ atmospheres. The old 2 ton per square inch and for a mammal with a heart which has to pump blood around and air in its lungs. You would have to think that respiration stops completely as opposed to holding your breath and that there are few if any areas not collapsed or filled with pressurized sea water, unlike a submarine. I still think it dropped something.
40
What could it have dropped? Maybe it’s wallet? For what else would you go to that extreme? 😉
20
” For what else would you go to that extreme?”
A 5c coin ?
10
One of a pair of earrings?
Ever notice how a lady will search longer for a single lost one than for a pair.
The remaining one of a pair acts as a constant irritant. So my money is on a dropped earring.
31
What if the whale is a male ?
10
A gay whale.
10
There’s a Sperm Whale line here somewhere…..
20
Indeed they will. My wife lost one of her favorite pair and when I found it days later she was as relieved as if I had told her she didn’t have a fatal disease after all.
You gotta love ’em, even if you can’t understand ’em. 🙂
20
By which time, she had probably “misplaced” the other one.
00
Probably its watch – how else will it know when its two hours is up?
Have to a pocket watch, though – no wrists.
10
Maybe these deep dives are for health reasons? The high pressures, low oxygen levels, depressed temperature and often high salt at these depths may help kill parasites, bacteria etc on the whale. Clearly microbes are the whale’s ‘largest’ enemy.
50
Another reason might be the giant squid, which only live at depth. I believe the blue whale and hump back whale eat them too.
20
Blue & humpback whales are baleen whales – they eat by filtering. The only predator of the giant squid that I know of is the sperm whale; as squid are known to be prolific breeders, and the number of sperm whales has been decimated, you could be right (however, Carcharadon megaladon – a giant shark known only from one fossilised tooth – could still be extant at those depths).
10
I wonder if squid have sonar like a whale. Remember, at two miles down no light penetrates. It’s totally dark. Typically any species that lives in the dark has no eyes. Nature is very efficient and discards the unnecessary — except for some reason it doesn’t discard climate scientists and other assorted complainers. 😉
00
Remember that evolution takes, at a minimum, thousands of years to work.
11
can I refer you to my website. What a stupid statement.
Here is a hint. Evolution is real time and 24/7 before humans even invented hours and weeks.
00
There you have it … no depth …
20
It probably dropped the new iphone…..
00
So many things here to comment on I don’t know where to start. I think I’ll ignore Obama’s systematic trashing of our defensive capability, since its obvious to everyone and say something about the whales.
It’s hardly a surprise to me that a species designed for life in the ocean from birth to death has a capability we wouldn’t guess at unless we actually looked into what they can do. I’m much more surprised at the Japanese and other divers who can stay under for far longer than the average human can ordinarily hold their breath and reach depths that put crushing pressure on their rib cage and lungs. The pressure of sea water rises approximately 1/2 pound/inch-squared for each foot you go down. At just 50 feet (~16 meters) it’s roughly equivalent to the pressure in your tires. And some of these divers can go considerably deeper.
That the whale can do what whales are designed to do isn’t surprising. It’s that humans can do things they apparently are not designed to do that surprises me. It shows the great adaptability of humankind and the benefit of training and practice.
And whales are magnificent creatures. If you’ve ever seen one you get a feeling of awe at their size alone. And if you see them playing (they do play) you can’t help but wonder what their intelligence is if it could be measured. I had the privilege of seeing one playing from the air, low enough to feel like I could reach out and touch it. I’ve never forgotten that.
20
“wonder what their intelligence is if it could be measured”
FAR greater than your average climate scientist… that’s for sure. !
81
If that is so then perhaps taking the climate scientists down two miles might increase their IQ? At least my computer modelling proves it would so it must be true.
52
We need to run some empirical tests, pronto.
32
Empirical test you say? One C. Milne and one B. Brown could volunteer provided T. Abbott guarantees the eternal salvation of Tassie forest….. Our best chance to combat CG!
00
I recall fishing off the NSW south coast when a humpback surfaced right beside our tinny. Add ‘fear’ to the ‘awe’.
They have incredibly bad breath!
40
I suspect I might have some fear too. And yet they don’t seem to be hostile to human activity in the water around them, just curious and possibly playing. I would not want to have the mother thinking I was a danger to her calf, however.
Reportedly they don’t like naval sonar activity or noisy ships and run from both. Since the source of these reports is reasonably suspected of bias I have no idea how much of a problem it may or may not be. But I support legitimate measures to protect whales. It would be a tragedy to lose them.
At the worst bad breath is harmless. 😉
00
On the East coast of the South Island of New Zealand, at a place called Kaikoura, the local population arrange boat trips into the Pacific, so that the whales can study live tourists.
Nobody is quite sure why the whales are conducting these observations, nor what their aims might be. But they are very astute mammals, with a brain the size of a small car, you can bet it will be deep (2 miles) and meaningful.
10
Maybe the whales are those mysterious aliens who’re conducting observations of all kinds here on earth. You know, all those reports we keep reading about and hearing about have got to have some basis. Maybe you’ve solved the mystery, Rereke. ;-
00
What an opportunity missed! Whilst they were there they could have taken the temperature and possibly found the missing heat or not as the case may be. Perhaps they did and are keeping schtum about it to keep us on the hop.
Listen to this carefully – I think its saying “so-long and thanks for all the fish”.
30
Yes, the poor ARGO buoys only get to 2km down, not 3km, and they take 2 weeks to get down and come back, plus they float randomly. These cuvier-thermometers could really add to our data sets, but if they only accept giant squid in payment, it’ll be hard to train them…
Actually seriously, I think we need fixed thermometers on the sea floor, the big problem being that it’s hard to get the data back up to the surface. Perhaps thermometers attached to deep sea cables would be the go? They could transmit in real time.
20
Jo, sonar or ultra long wave like the submarines use would do for transmitting the data nicely.
Actually I wonder why it is not used already, probably because one reading is all it takes and it’s not worth the effort.
The temp don’t change much down there.
20
Almost all of the ultra long wave frequency band is reserved for military use, under international conventions.
00
Anything you put on the sea floor would need a power source, which means a battery. And the end of the battery would be the end of the data no matter how you arrange to get it sent back.
But you don’t need anything too sophisticated. The data rate wouldn’t need to be fast and ordinary sound travels well in water. So you could encode the readings using the good old Morse radio telegraph code and take several minutes or more to send back a message. Automated Morse encoders have been around for many years and aren’t very complex or expensive. The problem as always would be that the deeper these things are the more power they would need in order to be heard near the surface and that’s not good for battery life.
The drawback to this is that hardly anyone learns the Morse code anymore. It’s not even required to get an amateur radio operator’s license as it once was. 😉
00
<
<a href="”>
sorry – link failed
00
What an opportunity missed! Whilst you were writing your comment you could have clicked the Preview button and possibly found the missing tag in your HTML.
Twice.Thrice.As for the missing heat, surely we can see the result already. It’s obvious why the whales keep diving back down as fast as they can. Only two things could motivate mammals to such extremes: food and mating. The missing heat is accumulating so much down there it is creating a deep-fried calamari buffet. On the edges of the fryer is the sauna, where all the whales go to flirt in comfort. It’s always party time at Trenberth’s Whale Sauna And Grill.
Tough choices for the environmentalists; they can stop global warming or else save the whales. Every time you rev your SUV, somewhere a whale gets a hot dinner date.
The Navy is not to blame for all of the dead whales that wash up on the beach. Contests between the male Russian whales and the male Finnish whales to see who can stay in the hottest part of the ocean for the longest sometimes turn lethal. At the depths these whales dive the water could be 300 Celsius without turning to steam. Yes, that link counts as scientific evidence. 😀
50
Andrew, thanks so much for this.
Funniest thing I’ve read today.
Say, the old adage of ‘never let a chance go by’ might apply here as well.
There’s some guy at UNSW having a good think right about now about a new way to
scam the taxpayer, sorry, apply for a Government grant.Wants to study whale speech patterns with the end result of asking the whales if they have found that missing heat.
Tony.
61
The best so far today? At 9:45am that `aint sayin’ much, but I’ll take anything I can get at this stage. Ta.
But it doesn’t end there.
Turns out V’ger had been tutored by intergalactic climate scientists and wanted to know where all the heat since 1971 had gone. Kirk had to travel back in time to ask the whales where it went. That’s what the whales were telling V’ger in whalesong. It all makes sense.
Furthemore, Japan has come under criticism recently for using extreme interrogation techniques when questioning the whales about the location of the missing heat. Most suspects do not survive the process. The Greenpeace crew don’t want the location of the missing heat found or else the Sauna and Grill will become an endangered habitat. The uncertainty about the magnitude of warming is also what breeds all the alarmism and drives donations to Greenpeace. Follow the money. That’s why Greenpeace fights so hard to stop whaling; they don’t want the whales to squeal. Donations to Greenpeace are basically hush money for whales.
People are underestimating the explanatory power of this hypothesis. 😉
20
“The Greenpeace crew don’t want the location of the missing heat found or else the Sauna and Grill will become an endangered habitat”
Is that similar to the bumper sticker that says.
“don’t follow me, I’m going fishing ! ” ?
They will no longer get their free fission chips ?
11
…..maybe a new recepie for fried calamari?
00
try again
20
abort mission
20
diogenese2
. . . seems to be trying to post a URL using a word processor that has “smart” or “curly” quote marks that the blog URL routines can’t handle. They want “straight” quotes. This function can be turned off or on in most text programs.
Alternatively, try by replacing the quote marks after the copy/paste action has been completed into the blog window.
00
Whales and other diving mammals also rely on the diving reflex to sustain long dives. Cold water in the nasal area inhibits respiration, slows heart rate and reduces blood pressure, shutting down circulation to non-essential areas (muscle, gut, skin, etc) essentially turning themselves into a heart-brain-kidney preparation. As you note, they have a lot of oxygen storing myoglobin in the muscles and a right shifted dissociation curve which allows them to deliver much more oxygen to the tissues than humans. What is remarkable is how quickly these animals clear the lactic acidosis on surfacing and taking a breath.
What the pressure at that depth does to their lungs doesn’t bear thinking about.
The diving reflex is present in pretty much all mammals including humans although often in a vestigial state. We speak of cold water in the face as “taking the breath away” which may be literally correct. Some survivals from prolonged immersion in very cold water has been attributed to the diving reflex.
Isn’t nature wonderful?
30
Are vegetarians going Catholic on us? I thought they could not eat any meat. And I have not checked, but I still think that Whale meat is verbotten on Fridays in lent for Catholics – mostly because I have no access to it. Whales are not fish.
10
Ah, but Japanese Buddhists aren’t supposed to eat meat, but fish are OK.
Whales are classified as fish,
so deer meat can be eaten when it is classified as Mountain Whale.
It is reasoning like that that has made the IPCC case.
100
At the rate of warming and glacier melting, the rise in sea level might put paidto your assumption about mountain whales……Did you get a grant for that or is just intuition? There is money on the horizon…..
10
I see that adhering to religious based dietary laws are indeed complicated. I guess I will stick with the scientific classifications for my religious beliefs. 😉
00
I do believe that it has been declared by a world renowned ichthyologist that there is no such thing as a fish (from QI so take it with a pinch of salt). The genetic difference between what are called fishes can be much bigger than between us and a salmon.
You have to remember that a capybara and a puffin are fish according to the RC. These things are what you gather from the wild – you fish for them.
And I have seen T-shirts with “bacon is not meat” next to the “F$K TA” T-shits, so why not whale.
10
Somewhere, I have a T-shirt that says:
SAVE THE WHALES
Collect the whole set
21
Yea? And just where are you going to store them? LOL
00
One of the supposed “tests” of the difference is whether they have live births or just eggs. Yet I have caught fish that had babies inside their womb. But they do not then nurse the young the way mammals do. An estimate I saw said that 3% of fish do it that way.
Fortunately I do not have to check the hooves of the land beasts I eat.
00
I have tied it in Norway, I have to say that it isn’t exactly a delicatessen. The local fish in Bergen was much, much tastier.
10
I have tried it in Iceland: never again. Did remind me too much of the whale liver oil I had to drink when I was a child to prevent vitamin D deficiency in winter. Still have nightmares if I think about how we did drink that with a closed nose to prevent the smell coming in…
But indeed it is amazing what these creatures can do. Killer whales catch much of their prey (mainly giant octopus) at that depth.
20
… whale meat is thus the absolute reddest-of-red-meats and very iron rich …
Hmm, if I got rid of the steers, and dug a very large (and deep)
swimming poolreservoir in by bottom paddock …I can always say that the whales I purchased and claimed for on my tax, cannot be audited right now, because they are on a long dive.
What is not to like?
51
always found this amazing ,
Blue whales are so enormous that a human being could swim through their largest veins and arteries.
10
Sorry but skeptical is the name of this blog. I’ll want a source for that one. 🙂
00
Did you read about this beaked whale that has been hanging around perth?
I think it may have had the bends
10
I doubt that is possible unless it has access to scuba gear.
20
Rather off topic.. but
…..there is that darn 97% again..
(courtesy Lomborg via Bolta.)
“Lomborg is no climate sceptic, but says the global warming hysteria has us blowing billions:
In 2012, solar and wind power was subsidised by $60 billion. For all this extra money we spent on energy, we generated just 0.3 per cent of global energy from wind and 0.04 per cent from solar. The emission savings from that translate into climate benefits of just over $1bn. Ninety-seven cents of every dollar invested was wasted.”
91
Cuvier Beaked Whales may hold the record temporarily. The Sperm whale however is known as one of the deepest diving and longest diving creatures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale
Sperm whales are known to dive to the sea floor at about 2 miles depth since they have sometimes become stuck in undersea cables. Duration of dive can be up to 2hours.
20
What It’s Like to Be at the Bottom of the Ocean
“You are in a metal sphere that is not much wider than your outstretched arms.
It is uncomfortable, cramped and cold and there are no facilities.
As the dive progresses, it becomes colder because the temperature of the deep ocean outside is close to freezing and penetrates the metal hull, so you bundle up.
– That’s deep sea scientist Peter Rona describing what it’s like to dive in a submersible to the bottom of the sea.”
. . .
No missing heat observed or experienced there.
30
Presumably they scrub the atmosphere, within the sphere, to remove the CO2?
10
Gigantic water rats! Harpooning is too good for the vermin.
26
“SAVE THE WHALES” Why???
The butt ugly water rats are not endangered. They are the emotive Trojan horses of the warmists, especially the WWF.
This organisation solicits donations to further their socialist cause through many schemes/scams like adopt an animal. FFS, adopt an animal?
The whales are so disgusted they beach themselves in protest. Then the eco loons try to launch them back into the water, fascists!
And don’t get me started on the pandas.
15
What’s wrong with panda’s?
20
Now you’ve got me started!
The giant panda is the laziest animal on the plant. In comparison, it makes the sloth appear to be athletic. The panda is a carnivore, being so lazy they have resorted to being herbivores.
Everyone believes that they are cuddly things but when irritated (calling them nasty names) they attack and have been known to rip people new ones.
They are supposed to be endangered but it is believed that their numbers in the wild are double and the International Union for Conservation of Nature are in denial and refuse to reclassify them.
The WWF have their finger in that pie, would look silly as their logo is the panda.
There needs to be created a cross mutation of the ranga panda and drop bear to annihilate these parasites. Now, that would be science.
31
That could be the real reason for it being the symbol of the WWF.
40
Most probably an omen.
I believe the environmental organisations started out with the best intentions. Over time, after some success, they were seen as a vehicle for the fascists to wield power over the common man.
These organisations and their so called causes deserve to be ridiculed and I’m doing exactly that here.
I was a member and donor to some of these organisations. Laughing at the red thumbs as I bet that the people giving them have not done a tenth of what I’ve achieved for the environment and nature over the years.
Comes down to talk and walk again.
32
As the late, great Patrick Moore found out with “Brownwar” (and/or Enemies of Earth?). He was one of the few people to ever deserve any and every accolade that could possibly be heaped upon him, yet one of the most pleasant, humble, enthusiastic – positively effervescent! – persons that I have had the honour of meeting.
30
Patrick is certainly a great of the real environmental movement. Never had the pleasure of meeting him.
The people I knew in the seventies and eighties were also of his calibre but just got on with it and not widely known.
I believe the only old school environmentalist left on the scene is Drew Hutton. He is presently spearheading the campaign against coal seam gas extraction, mainly in Qld.
I’m against it because of the salt, unnamed chemicals used and the fact it is being done in the Great Artesian Basin.
First became aware at an Australian Environment Foundation conference in Brisbane around three years ago.
Drew, an affected farmer, Jen and I was discussing the issue and others over lunch. On learning this I’m surprised that I ate at all!
Warmists are not environmentalists and never will be.
40
scaper,
Agree with you except while the kids whose bums need a spank are protesting petulantly about whales, their time is diverted from more harmful activities.
21
scaper if you’ve never seen Tropic Thunder I strongly suggest you do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se5JREzOHUQ
I believe you will enjoy.
10
My best Whale watching experience was on Hervey Bay Queensland, Platypus Bay Fraser Island north, from my boat we spotted a mother and calf swimming slowly some distance away and I cut the motor and allowed the 6m boat to drift. To our surprise they came towards us and the mother Whale positioned herself beneath the boat, head out in front of the bow and tail out from the stern highlighted because of the white sandy bottom and clear water.
The calf swam around quite close for a while and then moved alongside, mother Whale moved sideways and lifted the calf on her back out of the water close enough that with no effort, had we wanted to, we could have touched it. I have a video of this event. The calf remained above water for a few minutes. Then mother submerged and the calf swam away with her.
At this time two commercial Whale Watch vessels approached at speed, I assume that their spotter aircraft had alerted them. As the mother and calf distanced themselves from my boat two other adult Whales appeared and commenced breaching activities which we watched for maybe 20 minutes before they moved on too.
We then entered Wathumba Creek lagoon for lunch.
20
My best Whale watching experience was on Hervey Bay Queensland, Platypus Bay Fraser Island north, from my boat we spotted a mother and calf swimming slowly some distance away and I cut the motor and allowed the 6m boat to drift. To our surprise they came towards us and the mother Whale positioned herself beneath the boat, head out in front of the bow and tail out from the stern highlighted because of the white sandy bottom and clear water.
The calf swam around quite close for a while and then moved alongside, mother Whale moved sideways and lifted the calf on her back out of the water close enough that with no effort, had we wanted to, we could have touched it. I have a video of this event. The calf remained above water for a few minutes. Then mother submerged and the calf swam away with her.
At this time two commercial Whale Watch vessels approached at speed, I assume that their spotter aircraft had alerted them. As the mother and calf distanced themselves from my boat two other adult Whales appeared and commenced breaching activities which we watched for maybe 20 minutes before they moved on too.
We then entered Wathumba Creek lagoon for lunch.
00
I have had very similar experiences, whales doing a bit of people watching.
Not too long to go and the season starts again.
10
Not all whale meat is created equal.
One time in Hokkaido I was treated to some “research whale” sashimi, a rich red firm morsel that put even the best maguro tuna to shame. It was unbelievably good.
Evidently just as with the IPCC one needs to have the right connections in the scientific community.
50
They really only eat 10% of the whale carcass – the tail muscles are the delicacy which is probably what you had. (also probably the whale equivalent of our fillet) Same with Kangaroo, we only eat 10% in fillets. The rest is sold to China and Russia as cheap meat.
20
Speaking of whales I am surprised that the econuts are not promoting them for ‘renewable biofuel’. They are happy to flatten the Amazon for palm oil and they are happy to shred birds with wind farms so why not a whale oil industry? It is the old 18th century technology that greens seem to like and whales must surely be worse than Australian camels (earmarked for destruction) as far as ‘carbon footprint’ (flipper swish?) is concerned.
The first question that struck me was also – Why?
Are they just out for a stroll in the dark? Do they do it because they can?
It is a fair old trek. Do we know whether they reach bottom or is it just some arbitrary level? This could determine whether it has nipped down to pick something up (a lost contact lens for example) or whether there is some other reason.
Interesting fact: Due to the extreme pressure the whale is scrunched down to something the size of a goldfish at these depths and would make an ideal pet for a child with a pressurised aquarium.
Finally a question – at a depth of about 5km from my calculations, air should be compressed to a density greater than that of water (which does not compress much). Is it the case then that bubbles sink and spend the rest of time on the sea floor?
30
Keith L,
Only when the chips are down.
10
Crikey Keith what would happen if the power went off?
00
That’s an interesting question about the bubble sinking if it is compressed too much.
I would have thought, as you did, that if the weight of fluid displaced can be reduced by adding arbitrary amounts of pressure, but the weight of the air stays the same, then there should be a point where the weight is more than the buoyancy.
However there is also temperature reduction in the gas.
Then there is the alleged problem of Nitrogen not working according to the Ideal Gas Law at low temperatures and high pressures.
According to one boffin the answer is probably not, but you can tell by the end that there is some assumption and guesswork taking place.
I tried searching for a video of a deep sea sub or ROV in the Marianas trench with bubbles coming out of it – the ground truth – but I’ve not found any. They always seem to have cameras looking at the surroundings but never back at the sub itself (fair enough), so we shall just have to leave this as an Unsolved Mystery for today.
20
At a guess… At the temp and pressure that a bubble of air would “sink”, it instead just goes into solution.
A diving bottle has air at 300bar which is 4400psi.
So if you opened the valve at 300bar depth…. The gas inside would barely leak out… and would be forced into a solution with the seawater at greater pressures if it did… That’s my guess.
If you look at videos of Black Smokers on the mid ocean ridges, the hot gasses very quickly disappear. The bubbles don’t continue streaming up to the surface.
Anyway, that’s me two cents worth. 😉
00
How much would you have to pay a whale on an hourly basis to do regular surveys of the temperature of the deep ocean?
10
A bowl of petunias?
20
Just so long as its not Nasturtiums..
We really don’t want people casting nasturtiums.
10
Griss,
Apologize for that one. Then go stand in the corner for 10 minutes. 😉
00
Don’t get me started on whales!
00
My flatmate pointed out something that I had not realised. The whale probably goes down so deep just for bragging rights to surface fish which cannot make the trip. Carrying its own oxygen down there must give it a major turbo-charged advantage over all the other creatures down there which, I imagine, are a bit slower as they have to eke out what little oxygen they can get from the deep ocean. I assume it is a bit depleted down there. (?)
00
If the Greens abandoned hypocrisy, they’d be advocating the use of sustainable whale oil.
31
Petroleum products replace whale oil in the 1800s. It’s indisputable that the oil companies saved the whales. But what thanks do they get for it?
40
Leo if the Greens abandoned hypocrisy they would become conservatives,and the last thing we need is more lefty neo-cons.
00
Jo. Are you eating meat these days?
01
Not useless at all.
00
Except if you are a whale. 😉
00
Well they had 3.5 Million years to evolve their diving abilities or die trying. And the other thing is that their internal organs didn’t come out of their mouths when they rise quickly from the depths to surface, which would normally happen to any fish (which would of course kill it.)
00