Dolphin Animal Power

[dulsi]

I was thinking about Dolphin Free States. It got me to wonder if Dolphins sleep. I found that they stay half-awake while sleeping. I was thinking of an additional animal power to allow them to be better at noticing things while "asleep" and allow they to keep swimming to prevent drowning. Unfortunately since I don't think there are any perception like rules in AtB2, I haven't given any quantification to how much better a half-awake dolphin is a noticing thiings than an asleep human.

5 BIO-E Half-awake. Dolphins can't simply sleep like other mammals. They must remain near the surface and come up for air. Additionally they are at greater risk in open water than most mammals. In order to keep breathing only half of the dolphin's brain sleeps at a time. The character maintains much greater awareness of the surroundings during normal sleep periods. A dolphin with a biped of none or partial can keep swimming forward at a slow speed while half-awake.

Thoughts?

[dulsi]

There doesn't seem to be as much information on whales sleeping. Dolphins keep one eye open while sleeping. From the web information it is not clear if whales keep one eye open. Since the Orca is part of the dolphin family, it wouldn't surprise me if it had similar sleeping habits. I didn't find any mention of a passive sonar used while sleeping.

As for sharks, web information suggests that not all sharks need to continually swim. However, they seem to unsure if that means they don't sleep or if they have partially sleep like dolphins. "Resting" sharks do follow divers with their eyes which shows they aren't sleeping at that moment.

I'm constantly amazed by how much we don't know. Only recently did a scientist discover that the Narwhal's tusk conect to the nervous system and appear to provide some sensory data.