Seals — Masters of Underwater Arithmetic

Many of us, when faced with a critical situation, recall our school math lessons only to count how many minutes are left until lunch break. Seals, on the other hand, use underwater arithmetic every day—and their results are impressive even to straight-A students.

Scientists have discovered that seals are not only excellent swimmers, but they also literally “calculate” their dives based on the amount of oxygen in their blood. Unlike office workers, who start to lose their breath just thinking about deadlines, these flippered creatures know how to wisely manage their reserves—not only do they not sink, but they even manage to surface on time, even if they get distracted by fish underwater.

The mechanism is as simple as a balance sheet: a seal senses how much oxygen it has “in its account” and chooses the depth and duration of its dive so as not to go into the red. Many of us could learn a thing or two about this kind of financial self-control.

It turns out that the phrase “staying afloat” for seals is not a metaphor at all, but a daily, carefully calculated survival strategy. And once again, we humans are left in the role of those who count oxygen tanks at the pool and wonder why we’re not sinking after all.