Why Don't Whales Sink?
Whales are some of the heaviest creatures in the world, not just in the oceans, but on land as well. They don't sink because most of their vast bodies are made up of a type of fat called blubber. This is what makes them float. Seals, penguins and walrus also have blubber, but to a much lesser degree. Also, the vast oceans are large and powerful enough to make even a blue whale float like a cork.
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Identification
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Blubber is found directly underneath the whale's skin. Blubber consists of an incredibly dense layer of fat and connective tissue that acts as insulation against the incredible cold of ocean waters. Blubber can be anywhere from a couple of inches thick in dolphins to over a foot thick in blue whales. Blubber can make up to 50 percent of a whale's body.
Features
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Blubber is basically the solid form of oil. If you put oil on water, the oil will float. Oil is far less dense than water. However, blubber is still less dense than the huge amount of water surrounding it. When a whale wants to dive, they have to fill an organ in their head with hot air, in order to make their entire bodies denser than the water.
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Considerations
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Although blubber is key in keeping a whale afloat, blubber alone can't help a huge whale to swim so well. Whale bones are also lighter than land mammals for two reasons. The first is to keep whales from being too heavy to float , and the second is that water supports most of the whale's body, so the skeleton doesn't have to.
Significance
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The reason why whales don't sink is also the reason why they have been hunted to near extinction and continue to be hunted today by individuals in Norway and Japan. Whale blubber is a huge source of oil. Before petroleum-based oils were used, whale oil lit lamps, made perfume, soaps, cosmetics, margarine and cooking oils. Whale blubber is rarely eaten, although it is edible and considered a delicacy in Norway and Japan.
Warning
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Why whales don't sink in water and drown is the same reason why they die if they are beached or stuck on land. Without the massive support of water to keep the whale afloat, the skeleton has to bear the load and cannot. It breaks, and the whale is crushed in on itself. It is unknown as to why whales beach themselves.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Humpback whale image from Wikimedia Commons
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Comments
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bahamutt215
May 05, 2010
Where did you get this information because it's incorrect. Whales sink. Most of them anyway, especially Blue Whales. Sinking whales are an important ecological event that supplies thousands of benthic organisms food. Entire communities of bacteria, polychaete worms, benthic sharks, and crustaceans survive on nothing but the corpses of whales that sank to the bottom.
