Welcome to You Ask Andy

Kim Schreiber, age 12, of Portland, Ore., for her question:

WHY DOES A WHALE SPOUT WATER?

Imagine the great shiny ocean with heaving waves on every side as far as your eye can see. Suddenly, in the distance, a foamy fountain spouts up above the surface. This would be a whale, coming up to empty his cavernous lungs and take in an enormous supply of fresh air. A whaler would shout “Thar she blows”—and be able to tell you the kind of whale from the shape of the fountain.

The huge, toothy sperm whale can dive down a mile and stay below for 70 minutes. The big baleen right whale can stay below as long as 80 minutes. But all these great monsters of the deep are air breathing mammals. And sooner or later they must come up for a breath of fresh air. This is what a whale is doing when he spouts his foamy white fountain above the silvery sea.

A big whale weighs as much as 1,000 men and has the strength to pull a train.  His great lungs are like small rooms, warm and moist. The air inside absorbs invisible water vapor. When he exhales through the blowhole in the top of his head, the puff comes in contact with the chilly air. This causes the invisible vapor to form visible droplets of moisture.

Suddenly the spout becomes a plume of misty moisture. It looks for all the world like a foamy fountain of water, but it is not. True, it contains misty droplets of moisture. But most of it is a puff of stale air from his enormous lungs.

Though all whales must come to the surface to breathe in and breathe out, each species has its own style. Emptying and filling the great lungs takes time, perhaps 10 minutes to half an hour. The big toothy sperm whale blows for six seconds, and needs about 70 puffs to do the job. The right whale blows every 60 seconds or so and takes five to 10 minutes to empty and refill his lungs.

The shape of the spout is molded by the blowhole on the top of a whale’s head.  The sperm whale’s blowhole tilts forward and toward the left. His foamy fountain is tilted. The blowhole of the right whale creates a fancyV shape spout.

 

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