How do whales dive nearly 3 km deep with air in their lungs

Question

I assume that the air in their massive lungs produce a lot of buoyancy so how are they able to accurately control their depth in water?
Thank you!

In: Biology

Answer 1

Air compresses with depth. At 33 feet below sea level, the air in their lungs is like half the volume of sea level. So buoyancy goes down a lot with changes in depth. Once they’ve gone down a short amount, the buoyancy of the air in their lungs becomes negligible.