Suppose that, during the course of human history, whales have evolved to be better able to avoid human hunters. Given what you know about evolution, which one of these things likely played the biggest role in contributing to this evolutionary process? Whales that happened to have genes that allowed them to stay underwater longer survived. These whales then passed those genes on to their offspring. Some whales were better at having offspring than other whales. This caused them to stay underwater longer (where they were harder for people to find). As whales were being hunted, some of them underwent mutations that allowed them to stay underwater longer (where they were harder for people to find)..