Whales are the mightiest creatures of the watery deep, and this has spurned a lot of stories – most of the time, fantastic myths actually – about this sea creatures. Look no further than this article as it considers and debunks five of these myths.
1. Whales can do lots of things underwater – they can feed, swim, and some can even stay underwater for more than two hours without breathing. But they can’t breathe underwater. Since they are mammals, they breathe through lungs. They lack the gills necessary for breathing underwater.
2. The whale’s blowholes (two for baleen whales, one for toothed whales) are similar to our nostrils, in that the whales use them to breathe. Of course, the whale’s nostrils are located on top of their head, making it much easier for them to get a breath than if the blowholes were located in the front of their head like ours.
What does the whale breathe? Whales breathe air, not water. As the air whooshes out of the whale’s blowhole(s) at a rate of several hundred miles per hour, it condenses and turns into water droplets. So, the whale’s spout is actually a mixture of air (turned into water droplets) and a little water from around the whale’s blowhole.
On top of that, it’s actually physically impossible for a whale to shoot water out of its head (unless, by some unfortunate situation, it had water in its lungs). This is because the whale’s mouth isn’t connected to its trachea or blowholes. When a whale gulps water during feeding, it has two exit points – back outside the mouth or through the digestive system.
3. Whales and fish are quite different, though. While they both are vertebrates (animals with a spine), whales are mammals who need to regulate their own body temperature, give birth to their young alive, and have hair, at least at some point in their lives.
Fish, on the other hand can breathe underwater and many reproduce by laying eggs, rather than giving birth to young alive.
4. It’s a common misconception that all whales eat plankton. That’s not the case, although there are some species – the North Atlantic right whale for example – that feeds primarily on tiny planktonic (these are plants and animals that float along at the mercy of the sea’s tides and currents creatures and may include bacteria, algae, archaea and protozoa) like copepods.
There are over 80 species of whales, and they have different feeding preferences, although in general many prefer small schooling fish and krill. Killer whales – also known as Orcas – may also eat larger fish and marine mammals such as seals, sea lions and even other whales.
5. All of the whale species are divided into two groups – Baleen whales or Mysticetes – which have baleen and filter their prey from the saltwater; and Toothed whales or Odontocetes – whales that have teeth and usually catch one or two prey items at a time.
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Within the group of toothed whales, which contains more than 70 species, there is the Family Delphinidae, which contains the dolphins. So, the term dolphin refers to the 30 or more species of whales in the Family Delphinidae – animals collectively called dolphins.
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Dolphins generally are streamlined animals with a prominent beak or rostrum, and they often gather in large groups. Dolphins can be further distinguished from porpoises. These animals are also toothed whales, although they tend to be smaller than dolphins, and with more squared-off heads.
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