Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 14, 2021

Whales have a way to shut that blow hole.

PS: When I swim upside down, I just bubble a little air out of my nose. Works pretty well.

People who read this strip probably get fact vs. opinion. The question is, how do we inform everyone else?

Only that part of the whale has to breach the surface for it to breath. Seems like it works for them.

We’ve had to invent the snorkel in order to match nature’s design of a whale’s blowholes.

You need to get that little flappy thing (technical term) installed.

Now imagine you are a whale and that you have your face in the water (pretty much) all the time.

What would you do? How could you fix it?

The big difference is that whales can close their nostrils. ;-)

There’s no hole like a blowhole. It’s a whole different hole !

Nice entrée into the study of evolution. Similarly, mammalian body plans include extremities that all follow the bone pattern 1-2-many-5, even tho they’re rearranged according to the best adaptation to the historical environments of each particular species.

As a rule, baleen whales—those whales who don’t have teeth, but rather have baleen plates to filter food out of the water—have two blowholes, while toothed whales have just one blowhole.

Meanwhile, toothed whales include sperm whales and beluga whales, among others. Interestingly, the blowhole of a sperm whale is actually located on its left side rather than right on top of its head. It’s technically a “left nostril.” While they don’t have a right nostril, they do have a right nasal passage that is fully developed; it just lacks an opening.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/10/whales-dont-spray-water-blowholes/

Until recently it was thought that dolphins could not breathe through their mouths in the same way as people can, only through their blowholes. However, in 2016 scientists discovered a New Zealand dolphin with a damaged blowhole who had learnt to breathe through his or her mouth.

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/how-do-whales-and-dolphins-breathe/

They probably close their nostrils when submerging, only opening them when the surface to breathe.

Standard etiquette when meeting with dolphins includes keeping your hands out of their blowholes. How’d you like somebody’s fingers in YOUR nose?

Your nostrils don’t have a ‘lid’

Somebody get an opinion from Paul Ranheim on how to breath in a Hartford whale suit.

Evolution did it child. Think about why it does that to water dwelling air breathers.