Who Knows a Sleeping Whale?
Scientists discovered that a gray whale can rest or sleep in these ways: • While it swims slowly. • While it lies very still on the surface of the water. • While it lies very still on the bottom. (You and I breathe without thinking about it, but whales must think about when to breathe. They can only rest on the bottom for a few minutes before coming up for a breath!) Here’s another thing that makes it hard to tell if a whale is resting. It might have both eyes open, both eyes closed, OR one eye open and one eye closed! (Scientists think this means the whale shut down half its brain. The other half stays alert enough to come up to take a breath or to notice trouble.) We still have many questions and few answers about whale sleep!
