Whale spouts -- okay, so I missed the whales themselves, but saw their breath!

I found this post about whale spouts and found it interesting:

"When a whale is under water it is holding it's breath. When it comes to
the surface it exhales through it's blowhole (actually the whale's nose).
The air from the whale's lungs is warm, full of moisture and comes out
under pressure. When that breath hits the outside air it condenses into a
cloud of mist in much the way that your breath makes a cloud on a cold day.
A common mistake is to think that a whale is spouting water. That would
be about the same as a person shooting water out their nose. Not something
you would like to do every day. If you go on a whale watch (or see some
good pictures of whales spouting) you can often tell the type of whale by
the shape of the cloud it blows." (Greg Early)

Copyright ©2004 C.Gino