Can dolphins or whales live in fresh water?

They don’t need to breathe in water so assuming they have enough prey I don’t see why the water’s saltinity affects them.

But then why don’t we have dolphins playing in the Mississippi river?

  • Slowy@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    There are types of freshwater river dolphins in the Yangtze (well, one of these species probably is extinct there as of recently but still) and the Amazon, for example. Sea dolphins can survive in freshwater for awhile but their skin isn’t adapted to it, and it will get damaged eventually. That and the difference in buoyancy in sea water vs freshwater leads to the sea dolphins eventually getting exhausted in freshwater.