Revived after my Halibut & Chips I set out for what was to be one of the most amazing afternoons of wildlife watching. Within 15 minutes of leaving the dock at Icy Strait ŵe came across a group of 15 Humpback Whales co-operative "bubble net" feeding. Once the whales locate a school of small fish - in this case herring - a lead whale dives deep below the school and begins to blow a net of bubbles through which the fish cannot pass. Other whales join in driving the ball of fish closer to the surface. Finally the whales emit a scream that stuns the fish and sends them to the surface and then in unison the whales in one formation surface through the bait ball mouths agape. Humpbacks are baleen whales and have no teeth. The lower jaw has a huge web of skin that expands to take in 15,000 gallons of water at a time. They force the water out through the baleen and then ingest the fish.
The whales feed all summer and need a ton of fish a day. In the winter they migrate 3,000 miles to Hawaii to breed.
Using a hydrophone to help detect where and when the whales would surface we tracked the group for 2 hours and got closer and closer to where they surfaced until they all appeared some 10 metres astern of the boat to give the spectacular photo I will blog separately. They then swam under the boat so that we could smell their breath, not very pleasant but supposed to be lucky.
If that were not enough in the evening when we were again sailing past Point Adolphus in Seven Seas Navigator we saw some juvenile humpbacks tail slapping an breaching. Enjoy the photos!
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment