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Richard Pyle <deepreef@bi*.bi*.Ha*.Or*> wrote:-

> However, the majority of oxygen in diving mammals is distributed in the
> blood and tissues (particularly muscles).

Red meat color is caused by a protein called myoglobin which stores oxygen
like haemoglobin does. (That is why birds with white breast meat can't fly
far, because there is no myoglobin in the flight muscles.) Whale meat is
nearly black because it contains a great lot of myoglobin to store oxygen for
long dives. All that myoglobin is in effect the whale's aqualung.

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