Deepest recorded dive by a mammal

What to remember

Off the coast of California in 2014, researchers recorded a Cuvier's beaked whale diving to 2,992 m, or 9,816 ft. It is the deepest dive recorded for a mammal.

The species also set the other big mark in animal diving: dives lasting 222 minutes have been recorded, or 3 hours and 42 minutes without a breath.

Also known as the goose-beaked whale or ziphius, it reaches about 4.5 to 8 metres in length. It lives far offshore in waters typically deeper than 1,000 metres, across temperate, tropical and subtropical parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Rarely seen, it is the most widely distributed of all beaked whales, probably numbering more than 100,000.