Our question this time comes from Victoria from Fort Myers, Florida. Victoria asks, “How do dolphins breath underwater AND above water?”
This is a great question Victoria.
Dolphins actually don’t breathe under water. Just like you and me, dolphins hold their breath when they go under the water, they can just do it for a really long time.
Bottlenose dolphins are thought to be the best divers of all the dolphins. They can go under the water as far as 1,000 feet, (that’s 10 football fields), and can hold their breath for as long as six or seven minutes!
Each time we take a breath the oxygen goes in our lungs, into our blood and to each of our organs – like the heart, liver, and brain. When the oxygen reaches these organs, they “trade” the new, full of oxygen air for the used, out of oxygen air, which is what leaves our body when we breathe out.
In order to get enough oxygen for deep diving, the dolphin has developed two traits that help him hold his breath for long periods of time. First, a dolphin’s lungs can get more oxygen to their blood (which is how oxygen gets to all the parts of the body) much faster then humans. What takes us eight or nine breaths only takes a dolphin one!
Secondly, dolphins store more oxygen then we do. Their organs can store up to three times more oxygen then humans, meaning that the good air and bad air do not trade places as fast. These two traits make it possible for dolphins to hold their breath for a long time.
Try holding your breath. When you breathe in you are taking oxygen into your lungs. Once the oxygen is in your lungs, it begins to go into your blood. Then, the blood takes it all over your body to the organs and trades it for bad, or used up air. When you hold your breath, the bad, used up air can’t get out and make room for more oxygen to come in. That’s why you can’t hold your breathe too long before you have to take a breath.
So you see Victoria, dolphins don’t actually breathe underwater, it just looks that way.
If you have a question you would like answered, send it to me. Maybe you’ll be the next feature here at Suite 101’s dolphin site.
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