novaeangliae) at close quarters when it is has burst to the surface during cooperative bubble net feeding on the Morris Reef, Point Hayes, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.
This is just before its distended throat contracts and the water is forced through its baleen plates as seen in the next photo. Clearly visible are the distinctive bumps or “tubercles” on the rostrum of a humpback whale that are found on no other species of whale. Each tubercle has a small hair or “vibrissae”, that probably act like whiskers as sensory organs for detecting their prey.
- Filename
- Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet9.jpg
- Copyright
- Duncan Murrell
- Image Size
- 4943x3402 / 12.7MB
- Contained in galleries
- Humpback Whales - Bubble Net Feeding
