Baird’s Beaked Whale Holds Its Breath for Over an Hour in Near-Freezing Abyss

This whale disappears for over an hour into water colder than a refrigerator.

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Some deep-diving whales reduce their heart rate to just a few beats per minute during the deepest phase of a dive.

Baird’s beaked whales routinely perform dives lasting 60 minutes or more while hunting in deep ocean waters that sit just above freezing temperatures. During these extended dives, their heart rate slows dramatically to conserve oxygen.

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An hour without breathing would cause irreversible brain damage in humans within minutes, yet these whales resurface without harm. Their blood contains elevated concentrations of myoglobin, allowing muscles to store vast reserves of oxygen for prolonged submersion.

Such extreme breath-hold capacity redefines mammalian limits and has influenced biomedical studies on oxygen deprivation, cardiac slowdown, and metabolic suppression under extreme stress conditions.

Source

Smithsonian Ocean Portal

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