The deepest dive on record for the Emperor Penguin is 565m (1854ft), a dive which lasted for 12 minutes. Shallower dives have been recorded for up to 22 minutes.
Emperor Penguins, although technically birds, cope with the pressure just like other diving mammals, with respect to the blood shunt, plasma shift, and so on. Further, it has been calculated that the Emperor Penguin's lungs contain a volume of air insufficient to hold enough nitrogen to cause decompression sickness.
The Emperor Penguin is the champion of all diving animals, in the sense that it can dive to a deeper depth per kilogram of body weight, by a large margin. For example, it weighs about 30kg, but it can dive to 565m+, whereas the next best small creature is a harbor seal (100-200kg), which can dive to 420m+. An elephant seal (1000kg) can dive to 1800m, still nowhere near the depth per unit body mass of the emperor penguin.
Futher, the torpedo shape of the penguin's body has been shown to have the lowest drag coefficient of any shape, man-made or nature-made.
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
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