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Mystery #2Tier 2holding your breath

How can a seal or a whale stay underwater for the best part of an hour on one breath?

A seal slips under the ice and vanishes. Minutes tick by, then more, and still it does not come up for air. Some seals and whales can stay under for close to an hour on a single breath, while you might last less than a minute. How do they make one lungful last so astonishingly long?

A Weddell seal gliding through clear blue water beneath the Antarctic sea ice
Photo: Steve Rupp · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What do you think a seal or whale does before and during a dive to stay under so long?

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