Penguins Deep Dive Timing and Number of Strokes

[MartinTee]

BBC Nature - How penguins 'time' a deep dive

This is actually related to something I have been testing, although very lightly.

When doing DNF in a 25metre pool I can vary a hell of a lot with the amount of strokes I do to get to the other end and complete one 25metre length under water. This was a couple of months ago and im getting alot more consistent results now.

Now my theory is this: Once I work out a nice flow I can know exactly how many strokes I can do the 25metre length in. Now if that is the case, I can close my eyes and hopefully benefit my style in two ways. One of them being conserving oxygen. Its something I have seen and read about for depth dives, closing your eyes while descending. The other thing is so I can become even more relaxed/focused and hopefully manage to get further in the pool.

I haven't seen this discussed at all but is it something people are trying while they do Dynamic or Dynamic No Fins?

 

[Azrael3000]

Here's the direct link to the article: Stroke rates and diving air volumes of emperor penguins: implications for dive performance

Wouldn't this also tie in with the FRC/exhale diving idea? I mean doing a static at the beginning and then having more kicks left to get back up instead of wasting them to overcome buoyancy?

 

[Apneaddict]

There's a penguin iPhone app that's a series of webcams at the San Diego zoo, I believe.

Watching them it is obvious that they are both very well streamlined and float like a cork when they stop swimming. Amazingly buoyant!!

 

[MartinTee]

Is that what the Australian on the front page seems to be doing? That is another idea but something that needs to be timed much better as there are the implications of knowing you have less oxygen in your body which could result in panic?

That is how im trying to 'see' it. If I am able to do loads of little statics while swimming under water and then being so focused that I don't even recognise im actually using my body to propel forward.

 

[efattah]

Here's the direct link to the article: Stroke rates and diving air volumes of emperor penguins: implications for dive performance

Wouldn't this also tie in with the FRC/exhale diving idea? I mean doing a static at the beginning and then having more kicks left to get back up instead of wasting them to overcome buoyancy?

Unbelievable, from the article:
"This was exemplified by a 27.6 min dive, after which the bird required 6 min before it stood up from a prone position, another 20 min before it began to walk, and 8.4 h before it dived again."

So the bird needs a 50 second surface interval between 10 minute dives, but a 27.6 minute dive needs an 8 hour interval!

 

[Simos]

Unbelievable, from the article:
"This was exemplified by a 27.6 min dive, after which the bird required 6 min before it stood up from a prone position, another 20 min before it began to walk, and 8.4 h before it dived again."

So the bird needs a 50 second surface interval between 10 minute dives, but a 27.6 minute dive needs an 8 hour interval!

Shame it doesn't give details of the depth of the dives. Wonder if the big interval is only to do with lactate accumulation and hypoxia or whether it's also related to decompression.

If we had a dive profile of the deep dives it would have been interesting to also see whether they spend the last few minutes at 5-10m before surfacing (or maybe they have some other way of avoiding DCS). EDIT: maybe DCS is the reason they appear to exhale air for 400-500m dives, as opposed to the 300m dives...

 

[Simos]

Actually it wasn't a normal dive, sounds like he was about to die:

Most amazingly, the team recorded one dive where an emperor penguin remained submerged for a record breaking 27.6 m. According to Ponganis, the accelerometery data show that after it emerged from the water the penguin just lay on the ice for 6 min before it stood, took another 20 min before it started walking and then waited a further 8.4 h before it ventured back into the water. `This animal was exhausted,' says Ponganis, who suspects that the dive was extended when the pack ice shifted above the penguin's head, blocking its escape route.