Learn why whales blow water spouts when they come up to breathe in this simple and fun explanation for young kids.
Hi there! Have you ever seen pictures or videos of whales making big sprays of water from their heads? Those sprays are called spouts, and they happen when whales come up to breathe!
Whales are animals that live in the ocean, but even though they live in water, they need to breathe air just like you and me. They have special holes on top of their heads called blowholes that work like noses.
When a whale wants to breathe, it swims up to the surface of the water, opens its blowhole, and breathes out really fast. The warm air from inside their body meets the cooler air outside, making a big puff of mist or water vapor that looks like a spout of water shooting up into the sky!
After blowing out the old air, the whale takes a big breath of fresh air, closes the blowhole, and dives back down underwater to keep swimming and eating. So, the spout is just the whale's way of saying, "I'm taking a big breath!"