Physiology of Freely Diving White Whales, Delphinapteras Laucas.

• Main Author: Costa, Daniel P.
• Other Authors: CALIFORNIA UNIV SANTA CRUZ
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Biology; Medicine and Medical Research; Acoustics; *RESPIRATION; *BLOOD PLASMA; *BIOACOUSTICS; *SEALS(MAMMALS); *WHALES; *DOLPHINS(MAMMALS); *LACTATES; TEST AND EVALUATION; FREQUENCY; TRAINING; OXYGEN; PLATFORMS; SAMPLING; LUNG; PHYSIOLOGY; AEROBIC PROCESSES; DIVING; SWIMMING; BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES; HEMATOCRIT; WHITE WHALE; DELPHINAPTERUS LEUCAS; Delphinapterus leucas; White whale
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA365297; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA365297

The performance of trained white whales was assessed during swimming and diving trials. During diving sessions, the whales made repetitive dives to a test platform that was suspended from a boat to depths up to 300 meters. In all studies blood samples were measured for changes in Po(sub 2), Pco(sub 2), pH, hematocrit (Hct), and plasma lactate and glucose concentrations. Respiratory frequency increased with increasing dive time. Aerobic dives are constrained by the total oxygen stored in the muscle, blood, and lung and the rate it is utilized. ADLs have only been experimentally determined in two species of pinnipeds and the bottlenose dolphin. In this study, we determined an ADL of 9-10 min for white whales. These are the first empirically determined measurements of ADL for a cetacean other than the bottlenose dolphin.