Whales live in water. Why does it spray water when it comes to the surface for air? This is related to the way they breathe. The first thing to confirm is that whales are mammals, not fish. Although whales have the word "fish" in their names, they are pure mammals. They breathe with their lungs like people. The whale's breathing hole is overhead, and the whale exchanges a lot of air every time it breathes. However, when it breathes air on the water surface, the breathing hole draws away the strong airflow generated by the waste gas, and the strong airflow will form a negative pressure, driving the seawater around the breathing hole to rush into the air to form a water column.
Experts can even tell the species of whales from the height, width and angle of water spray!
Do whales really spit water out of their nostrils overhead? This is not the case! In the long process of evolution, whales gradually adapted to life in the ocean, and their body structure also changed accordingly, including the transfer of nostrils from the front end of the head to the top of the head, making breathing more efficient and safe. In order to prevent whales from choking when diving, there is a group of powerful muscles under the nostrils, which can close and seal the nostrils so that water will not enter the trachea.
It is because of this structure that the nostrils of whales are sunken when they are underwater. When you reach the surface, there will be water in your nostrils. When cetaceans breathe, the high-speed airflow from the trachea will eject the accumulated water in the nostrils, thus ensuring the safety of ventilation.
The water that whales spit out is actually the seawater left in their nostrils when they surface, not the water in their noses and windpipes, unlike elephants. Due to the high-speed airflow in the trachea, the accumulated water is sprayed into the sky, forming a unique "whale splash".
The champion of whale water spraying is a huge blue whale, and its water column height can reach 10 meter!