Shafaqna English- It is common knowledge that keeping a cork submerged underwater is a difficult task due to its natural buoyancy. Despite this principle, sperm whales have the unique ability to hover motionless beneath the surface while resting, even though the large cavities in their heads are packed with buoyant materials like spermaceti oil, wax, and trapped air.
This would logically cause them to rise to the top, yet they manage to stay put – a phenomenon that researchers now attribute to their practice of emitting bubbles.
Among all whale species, sperm whales are the only ones known to adopt a vertical resting posture in the water, with their heads oriented toward the surface.
Researchers suspect that this unusual positioning offers protection from the disruptive motion of waves at the surface, while also eliminating the need to expend energy on swimming to greater depths. However, despite these theories, the precise mechanism by which they manage to remain submerged in this vertical state had, until now, remained an unsolved puzzle.