The longest ever recorded dive by a whale was made by a Cuvier's beaked whale. It lasted 222 minutes and broke the record for diving mammals with one whale diving almost 3 km (1.86 mile). A sperm whale can spend around 90 minutes hunting underwater before it has to come back to the surface to breathe. In 1969, a male sperm whale was killed off the coast of South Africa after surfacing from a dive lasting 117 minutes.

Whales' lungs are particularly efficient at taking up oxygen when they breathe air in and out through their blowholes at the water's surface. Special adaptations help them hold their breath for a long time.

Over millions of years, whales have evolved adaptations that enable them to out-dive even the most skilled scuba divers. Firstly, they have high blood-to-body-volume ratios, which is essential because blood stores and transports oxygen. Oxygen regulation is necessary during dives because air-breathing animals drown when the body runs out of oxygen. Secondly, relatively high concentrations of red blood cells further help carry oxygen. Thirdly, whales’ muscles contain a lot of myoglobin, a protein that helps store oxygen. A final oxygen-saving trick involves minimizing blood flow to specific organs, stopping breathing, and lowering the heart rate. A human who is not a professional free-diver or a navy seal, can typically last about a minute or two. The human record of natural underwater breath-holding lies at an impressive 11 minutes.

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