How do whales survive?

Question

whales have to jump or whatever they do to catch oxygen and go back under water... what if they just, you know, doze off... do they die? how do they survive and somethin else. they used to say that whales lived on land but there was some kinda flood so they adapted to water?? ok, so they want me to blv that whales had legs and they sort of -morphed- into fins or whatever? sorry i really need a fats explanation...

Answer 1

In order to sleep, water mammals like the whale and dolphin have to let one half of the brain sleep at a time, because they are conscious breathers and need to be halfway awake to know when to go to the top. In this way, the animal is never completely unconscious, but it still gets the rest it needs. I did a thesis on water mammals in college, and thats somthing i retained.

Answer 2

Its called evolution, sweety, and its not just like that, it took some 20 million years before whales, dolphins and porpoises as descendants of the land-living mammals, most likely of the Artiodactyl order, entered the water and another couple of million years before they became what you see today.
Because of their environment (and unlike many animals), whales are conscious breathers: they decide when to breathe. All mammals sleep, including whales, but they cannot afford to fall into an unconscious state for too long, since they need to be conscious in order to breathe. It is thought that only one hemisphere of their brains sleeps at a time, so that whales are never completely asleep, but still get the rest they need. Whales are thought to sleep around 8 hours a day.

Answer 3

Whales and dolphins have a type of half-sleeping state where they can hold their breath and still rest.

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According to Scientific American, observations of captured bottlenose dolphins, and of whales and dolphins in the wild, show two basic methods of sleeping: resting quietly in the water, vertically or horizontally, or sleeping while swimming slowly next to another animal.
Dolphins also enter a deeper form of sleep, mostly at night. It is called logging because in this state, a dolphin resembles a log floating at the surface.

When marine mammals sleep and swim at the same time, they are in a state similar to napping. Young whales and dolphins actually rest, eat and sleep while their mother swims, towing them along in her slipstream, called echelon swimming. At these times, the mother will also sleep on the move. In fact, she cannot stop swimming for the first several weeks of a newborn's life. If she does, the calf will begin to sink; it is not born with enough body fat or blubber to float easily.

While sleeping, the bottlenose dolphin shuts down only half of its brain, along with the opposite eye. The other half of the brain stays awake at a low level of alertness.

This attentive side watches for predators, obstacles and other animals. It also signals when to rise to the surface for air.

After about two hours, the animal will swap to the other eye and brain-half.

Bottlenose dolphins, based on electroencephalogram (EEG) readings, spend an average of a third of their day asleep. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) - a characteristic of deep sleep - is hard to discern but a pilot whale was clocked having six minutes of REM in a single night.

Although still a matter of debate, most researchers believe a dolphin or whale must be conscious and alert to recognise that its blowhole is at the surface.
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...Yes, whales sleep. However they do not sleep the same way we sleep. All whales are obligate breathers. That is they need to use an act of will to breath. We have the luxury of being able to breathe while deeply asleep.


Toothed whales live in extended family groups or pods. Animals in those pods will gather together in tight groups and rest while traveling quite slowly.

It is thought that toothed whales can snooze by shutting down only one side of the brain. The make shallow dives and breath in unison . It is possible that one animal is fully awake and acts as a breathing coordinator for the group. different animals could take turns as the "sleep warden".


Baleen whales, on the other hand, can be very sound sleepers while floating quietly at the surface in calm conditions. They do not appear to sleep in groups . ...

Answer 4

If any one answered this ( i doubt anyone will)
plz let me know
I am not kidding

Answer 5

http://www.fvza.org/zscience2.html