Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

At first, I read the news from National Geographic about pilot whales with excitement. The article described a new scientific study as finding that pilot whales are the “cheetahs of the sea”, reaching surprising speeds in their deep water dives.

That surprising speed? 28.8 feet per second. That sounds fast, until I did the conversion into miles per hour: 19.6 miles per hour. Cheetahs are purported to go about 70 miles per hour. The pilot whale isn’t even close.

Yes, I know that water is much thicker than air. However, pilot whales could use advantages of underwater locomotion, such as buoyancy, that would more than compensate for that.

The underwater crustacean the mantis shrimp gets much closer to the cheetah, moving its smashing claw at a literally striking 51.1 miles per hour.

Think that doesn’t count, just because it’s the claw moving, and not the whole animal? Well then, I suggest you go out on a fishing vessel and pick up the first mantis shrimp they haul in with their nets. Go ahead and try to hold it in your hands, and then see what you think of its speed.