Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Many people have this misconception, believing that whales are diving experts, the kind of behemoths that can effortlessly dive for several hours, moving through the ocean depths of hundreds, even thousands of meters, like the legendary Leviathan, unstoppable in the sea.

This is a wrong perception.

In terms of diving duration, whales are inferior to most animals that are truly adept at diving. It's only because whales are mammals that lead the pack among fellow air-breathing creatures, which would drown within minutes. Therefore, they score extra points in biological characteristics, making their diving capability appear much stronger.

However, bonus points can only be that, bonus points. Compared to the most common turtles, which can easily dive for two to three hours, only the Cuvier's beaked whale and the sperm whale can dive for 120 and 90 minutes, respectively, and these are extreme cases. Usually, it's around 50 minutes, and even that already makes them the "diving champions" among whales.

Only in extreme cases can they barely reach the lower limits of many diving experts, which is telling.

Of course, being able to dive for hours is quite impressive indeed, which is why whaling ships, when pursuing them, once they see them dive deep, can only wait in place for a long time.

Next comes the "diving runner-ups" like the humpback whale and the baleen whale, which can dive for 60 and 40 minutes, respectively, but usually need to rest for 5 to 10 minutes at the surface after every 10 to 15 minutes of diving.

Then there are the other whales, whose dive time is generally below half an hour, representing the vast majority of species.

For instance, the blue whale consumes 2–4 tons of food per day. When feeding, it swims at 2–6 km/h, during migration 5–33 km/h, and when pursued, up to 20–48 km/h at most.

Generally, it performs 10–20 short dives followed by one deep dive. The interval between shallow dives is 12–20 seconds, and deep dives can last 10–30 minutes.

The blue whale's behavior is the norm, while the sperm whale, which can dive for an hour and reach depths of two thousand meters, is like the "big daddy" among whales, akin to Bolt among humans.

It was precisely for this reason that in the Middle Ages, humans could chase whales in their little boats and hunt them indiscriminately; otherwise, if they just dived deeply for an hour and swam away, who could catch up?

Those who could catch a big daddy like the sperm whale were the cream of the crop, the personification of adventure and a badge of honor.

Of course, there are also dolphins, who don't dive very deep, generally around 5 minutes, with the Bottlenose dolphin capable of holding its breath for up to 23 minutes.

After all, whales are mammals and ultimately breathe with their lungs, not anything else. The length of diving time all depends on oxygen utilization.

Ordinary animals can exchange only 10-15% of the air they inhale, but whale lungs, although not large, can refresh 80-90% of the air with each breath, making it more efficient than humans' deep breathing.

They also utilize oxygen more effectively, as whales can control it to priorize supply to the brain, heart, and swimming muscles during dives, being very energy-efficient with oxygen consumption.

Most humans cannot do this, with only a very few world-class breath-hold divers able to reduce oxygen supply to non-core organs through prolonged training.

In addition, whales have a much higher carbon dioxide tolerance than humans. Many people feel the urge to breathe after holding their breath for just twenty-odd seconds not because of a lack of oxygen but due to increased internal carbon dioxide concentrations. Often at this point, the oxygen level inside the body remains at a high ninety-nine or ninety-eight percent.

Trained free divers, an important part of their training is to increase their carbon dioxide tolerance, allowing them to hold their breath much longer than untrained individuals, typically three to six times longer than average people.

But no matter how they utilize it, the essence is still that lung.

"The breathing pattern of gray whales when swimming involves several breaths during shallow dives, followed immediately by a longer deep dive."

"The usual depth of a deep dive is about 100 meters, covering a distance of around 1000 meters underwater, generally lasting 17-18 minutes, with some capable of only an 8-minute maximum and the longest at barely 50 minutes."

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Upon hearing Bi Fang's explanation, the concerned individual did a quick calculation and conservatively estimated that the straight-line distance to the coast was over five miles, nearly three kilometers. Looking purely at this data, escape seemed impossible.

Even if the gray whales reached their limit and were able to dive for half an hour, they would at best cover two kilometers, just over half the distance.

"Then, Old Fang, can't you dig more holes? Please help out."

"Yeah, can humans dig holes to assist?"

"In that case, why not dig one every mile?"

Bi Fang nodded, "Of course, that's possible."

Shuiyou were just about to smile when Bi Fang, still nodding, said indifferently, "If the entire ice field is thin, no thicker than thirty centimeters, if there are no ice ridges for several kilometers allowing for straight-line progression, and if the sperm whales can fully understand my intentions, maintain a considerable degree of trust in me, and also have an excellent vision to accurately see the ice holes a kilometer away, and if I take two days to dig holes, then it's possible to save them."

Shuiyou were doused with a bucket of cold water, no one had anticipated so many problems.

Indeed, gray whales, unlike Bi Fang who had traversed the ice field, did not know the exact distance to the coast; why did they stop moving?

Obviously, they had sensed that there were no more opportunities to surface for air within their range of perception. Cautious and timid by nature, the gray whales dared not move forward and could only huddle together here.

Certainly, this timidity was a decent survival strategy.

Not all parts of the ice field had ice as thin as at this hole; looking in all directions, one could even find ice caps and ice ridges dozens of meters thick. To reach the sea directly, one would have to take detours.

Gray whales were definitely not "ice-breaking animal vessels" like bowhead whales, capable of directly breaking through ice more than sixty centimeters thick. Without hard skulls, they would only injure themselves severely.

Moreover, considering Bi Fang's physical strength and the time the gray whales could keep going, the distance between holes had to be at least more than a mile, which is about five hundred meters. Otherwise, the cost of digging holes was too high, Bi Fang's stamina wouldn't allow it, and the whales wouldn't last that long either.

But could the whales follow Bi Fang without seeing hope if the distance was five hundred meters?

These were all problems, which was why Bi Fang kept pacing around the cave, hesitant to act. Without a solution to the aforementioned issues, a successful rescue was impossible.

"Stop cursing, stop cursing."

"Is there really nothing that can be done?"

"Ah, this..."

Just as everyone, even Bi Fang, was at a loss, a whale call drew Bi Fang's attention.

He had noticed early on that the smallest gray whale, due to its lack of strength, couldn't surface for air frequently and had to rely on its parents' help.

This time was no different; the Little Gray Whale surfaced for air with the help of a Big Gray Whale, but the fishing net entangled around its tail firmly captured Bi Fang's gaze.

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