Humpback whales catch fish by blowing bubbles
10 September 2011I’ve seen TV nature programs before that showed this behaviour by humpback whales: by blowing a curtain of bubbles around a school of fish, they can trap and catch and eat them.
The video below shows new data captured by American scientists who were able to slap data collection units on whales. They’ve been able to see the movements of the whales below the surface, how they make these bubble traps, and how there seem to be different kinds.
I found this video at LifeLines, a Scienceblogs blog that features podcasts of the American Physiological Society.
I think Denise and Kelly saw this type of bubble net with the humpbacks a month ago in the Bay of Fundy off of Briar Island. They said it was amazing. Other whales were coming in as two they were originally watching were closing the net.