annatto submitted, created time 1 year 3 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

The Cuvier's beaked whale is a master of the ocean's crushing depths. It can dive as deep as 2 kilometers in search of prey, the deepest known for any mammal. So scientists have been at a loss to explain why, in response to naval sonar testing, this champion cetacean sometimes succumbs to the same decompression sickness that afflicts scuba divers. A new mathematical model suggests that, by replicating the sounds of a predator, sonar forces the whale to adopt a risky diving pattern.

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