THERE is, I think, no reason why whales should suffer from the troubles which affect divers and caisson workers1. There is not enough air in the whale's lungs to produce bubbles of nitrogen in the blood, even if this were mostly absorbed on going down to deep water, and the whale then came to the surface. To produce bubbles on decompression, the whale would have to come up, fill its lungs and then go down until the nitrogen in the lungs was absorbed and repeat this operation, so charging itself with dissolved nitrogen. It is most unlikely to do any such thing.