A blue whale's blowhole is so large
that a baby could fit inside it.
Thankfully,
no babies are stuck in whales
in this episode.
But you are.
Like you and me,
whales have lungs.
They don’t have gills though,
so they can’t breathe underwater.
But unlike us,
whales can hold their breath
for a long time.
They can be underwater
for up to 30 minutes.
And deep-diving whales,
like sperm whales,
can survive for over an hour
without coming up for air.
But eventually,
they all have to come to the surface for air,
which they suck in
using their large blowholes.
It’s during one of these moments that,
somehow, you find your foot
getting stuck in a massive blowhole.
This is bad news for you and the whale.
You can think of blowholes as nostrils
on top of a whale’s head.
But they’re much more powerful
than human nostrils.
After each breath,
strong muscles seal the blowhole shut
to keep water from entering
the whale's lungs.
And since you only exhale 12-18% of your old air after each breath,
90% is a lot of air
to release in a single moment.
It’s so much air that
and reach 9 m (30 ft) into the air.
That is one big sigh.
Whales that have teeth and are active hunters,
known as toothed whales,
only have one blowhole.
But baleen whales,
which don’t have teeth and feed on krill,
usually have two blowholes because
they’re larger and need more oxygen.
It’s one of these larger whales that your foot is stuck in.
How would that feel?
It would be painful.
And the strong blowhole muscles
would make it extremely
difficult for you to get your foot out.
You’d still be struggling
as the whale submerges,
and water surges over your head.
Can you hold your breath
for as long as a whale?
I didn’t think so.
If the whale doesn’t dive,
then you’d have a chance to get free.
Typically, whales take one to two breaths per minute
when they're swimming at the surface.
You’d be able to gulp in some oxygen
every time the whale came up for air.
Your best chance to free yourself
would be when the whale exhales.
The opening of the blowhole,
combined with the violent exhale
of air and microbes,
could be just enough to
propel you to freedom.
And the whale would be
happy to see you go.
Some whales are very conscious
of their blowholes,
and don't like anything touching them.
'Get away!'
Whales can’t breathe through their mouths.
And even with a second blowhole to breathe with,
the whale wouldn’t be getting enough oxygen for its massive body.
And with your leg obstructing a blowhole,
water would leak into the whale's lungs.
If you didn’t get your foot
out of the whale's blowhole,
both of you would die from suffocation.
Luckily, you have a bigger chance
of being swallowed by a whale
than getting sucked into its blowhole.
Or, maybe that's not so lucky.
But that’s a story for another What If.