Bubble Net Feeding Whales Caught on Film

It has been a year since I have seen bubble net feeding in Alaska. But this show took us all by surprise. Last week we barely saw any humpback whales at all. We had a few far off tails from whales on the move. So when I spotted a group of several blows all together I made sure we altered course to give the guests a better look. Turns out it was a good thing that we turned because right after everyone walked out to the bow to see them we saw the circle of bubbles forming.

What followed next was awe-inspiring. The entire group of whales erupted from the center of the bubble ring, mouths wide open, tiny fish jumping everywhere trying to get away. This was bubble net feeding, and it was happening right in front of us. Not a bad start for day 1 of the cruise.

We stayed with the whales as they continued to bubble net feed 11 more times. I was also able to deploy our hydrophone so we could hear the bubble net feeding as well. The feeding screams reverberated through our ears as we watched the whales perform this amazing, choreographed feeding behavior. To make it even more special we realized that we were all alone, no other boats for as far as we could see.

At this point you might be asking yourself, what is bubble net feeding? It is a very special cooperative feeding behavior displayed by some humpback whales. The first place it was ever witnessed was in Alaska, which is still the best place to see it.
Multiple whales, sometimes over 20, coordinate a trap to corral small schooling fish, like herring. Working together, they are more efficient, getting more food for less energy spent.

When the group of whales finds a large, dense school of fish they will all dive down together. Then, if you have an underwater hydrophone deployed, you will hear a loud wailing coming from underwater. This is the lead whale coordinating the others. Another whale will swim in a circle about 60 or 70 feet under the school of fish, blowing air out as it swims. This creates a circle of bubble that rise up to the surface, trapping the terrified fish inside. Then, all at once, every whale swims up vertically inside the bubble ring towards the surface. The school of fish has nowhere to go except inside the mouth of a giant whale as it launches, open-mouthed, out of the water. This is the shot you hope to get as a photographer. And these are the shots I got below!

I've only seen one seagull end up inside the mouth of a whale. It popped up moments later to the surface looking very bedraggled.

Getting this shot is quite difficult because you don't know if it will happen, or where it will happen. I got lucky on this one.

I got really lucky on this one. I was in a small zodiac. At this point the tallest whale is about 12 feet out of the water...which meant I was looking up at a whale.

I could watch this all day.

If you look close enough you can even see the herring jumping up around the whales.

Sometimes the birds can see the rising bubble rings before we can. But not always. They are trying to eat some of the jumping fish.

Hope you enjoyed and I hope even more that you can see this in person sometime. Good luck!

Check out on pinmapp.com here: [//]:# (!pinmapple 57.813811 lat -134.906404 long Bubble Net Feeding Humpback Whales d3scr)

-Dai Mar