Why don’t seals drown?
FREE-DIVING IS a perilous sport. Divers, swimming underwater without oxygen tanks, frequently black out from low oxygen and put themselves at risk of drowning. Marine mammals such as seals, by contrast, can spend most of their lives below the surface without running such risks. A paper published in Science on March 20th explains why: seals can apparently sense how much oxygen they have in their blood and plan their actions accordingly.
Already have an account?Log in
Continue with a free trial
Get full access to our independent journalism for free
Or create a free account to unlock just this article
readers loved this