As it swims near the surface, an orca comes up every 30 seconds or so to breathe. They most often cruise at 2 to 6 mph, although they have been clocked as fast as 30.
To hunt for fish, an orca frequently dives 100 to 200 feet deep for 4-5 minutes. If they need to, they can dive to almost 1000 feet for more than 10 minutes.
Pound for pound, whales don't have any bigger lungs than land mammals and they even breathe slower. The difference is that they breathe deeper and extract more oxygen.
Whale blood can carry a huge oxygen load. It has a high concentration of red blood cells with oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. When they dive, their hearts slow and blood is shunted to the organs needing a high oxygen supply, like heart, lungs, and brain.
