As the whale turns: the shape of the humpback's flippers might hold the secret to more maneuverable submarines.(Biomechanics)

Publication: Natural History

Publication Date: 01-JUN-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Natural History Magazine, Inc.

The humpback whale, that mighty leviathan of the briny deep, hardly strikes one as a marvel of agility; on the contrary, it seems the very embodiment of stateliness and power. Each the size of a school bus, these awesome mammals cruise, mouths agape, so as to gather the tons of biomass they need to sate their appetites every day.

But the humpback gives the lie to the notion that things of great bulk move only by lumbering. After all, who hasn't seen, at least on film, the spectacle of a huge whale's great breach, its breathtaking leap from the water followed by a great returning splash? And underwater, the animals move with such astonishing agility that they've caught the attention of naval engineers, who hope that some of the principles learned from the study of the humpback's flippers can be applied to designing submersible vehicles of unprecedented maneuverability.

Megaptera novaeangliae, the humpback's scientific name, means "big-winged New Englander"--a nod to the pods of humpies living near the Stellwagen Banks of Massachusetts...

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