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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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  • Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) with tourist and shoal of red fish evading predation, Honda Bay, Palawan, the Philppines
    whale-shark-people-palawan_MG_8229.jpg
  • whale-shark-Puerto-Princesa30.tif
  • Kayaking- Gulf-of-California69.jpg
  • whale-shark-Puerto-Princesa6.tif
  • whale-shark-Puerto-Princesa44.jpg
  • whale-shark-Puerto-Princesa43.jpg
  • whale-shark-Puerto-Princesa7.tif
  • Cook from the tour banca boat assisting a tourist watching a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) with a shoal of rainbow runner (Elagatis bipinnulata), Honda Bay, Palawan, the Philppines.
    whale-shark-people-palawanDMurrellSE...jpg
  • Shoal of red fish that was trying to avoid a whale shark with a tourist from the banca tour boat, Honda Bay, Palawan, the Philppines
    whale-shark-people-palawan_MG_8230.jpg
  • These two humpback whales were members of a cooperative feeding group using bubble nets to herd and catch shoals of herring. There are submerged reefs in this area that they were working for a while, and it is most likely that they were breaching to create panic and shock waves to herd the herring against the reef and shoreline. I witnessed this behaviour several times with cooperative feeding pods when some of them either breached or lobtailed in unison in strategic locations to herd the shoal of herring into a bay, against a shoreline or submerged reef. I once witnessed five whales breaching simultaneously. It's incredible how they manage to coordinate their breaching over distance: another example of their highly developed social behaviour and communication.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-breach3.jpg
  • On the journey back from La Paz I had an exhilarating encounter with a large pod of Bryde’s whales lunge-feeding on a shoal of fish in this channel between the Baja Peninsula and Isla San Jose; Bryde’s whales are medium-sized baleen whales, specifically rorqual whales belonging to the same group as blue whales, humpback whales and others. They closely resemble their close relative, the sei whale, are found in tropical waters and are easily identified by the distinctive, three longitudinal ridges on their rostrum ( the extended dorsal surface of a whale’s head ). After many years of having hair-raising close encounters with feeding humpback whales in Alaska I was taken aback by how much faster the Bryde’s whales were; they can accelerate up to 15 mph compared to their usual cruising speed of 1-4 mph. I was just thinking that I would have to shift into a higher gear of alertness when a dorsal fin suddenly burst into view right in front of me, and it slid beneath my kayak with barely a whisker between us ! A few days later I had my first ever encounter with a grey whale. I had already seen a breaching humpback whale between La Paz and Isla San Jose but I was still yet to see the big one – a blue whale.
    Kayaking- Gulf-of-California48.jpg
  • If I paddled past a sea lion haul-out I always attracted a tightly-packed group of noisy sea lions like a magnet: they would extend their heads as high as they could to get a better look at me. They always stayed bunched together rather like a shoal of fish that employs the "one in the middle" defensive group strategy that relies on strength of numbers to increase an individuals chance of survival. They were very vociferous but always kept a safe distance, unless they dived underwater to get a closer look at me: I could see them circling beneath me and looking up at me with their big bulging eyes.
    Alaska-Steller-sealion8.jpg
  • Orcas have many of the same behavioural characteristics on the surface as humpback whales, and possibly for the same reasons. I didn't observe orcas lobtailing or breaching as much as humpbacks. It's quite likely that this orca was lobtailing to herd salmon, just as humpback whales do to shock and herd shoals of herring into bays or along a shoreline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca11.jpg
  • Lunge-feeding humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia), Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I became very familiar with the individual whales that made up the cooperative bubblenet feeding groups. I could identify them by their flukes, markings on their throats, barnacles and even sometimes by the sounds they made.<br />
I had known Dr Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation for many years during his research into the cooperative bubble net feeding strategies employed by the humpback whales of Southeast Alaska. He was particularly interested in the genetic relatedness of individual whales within and between cooperative pods, in addition to the local genetic sub-structuring of the population. He discovered that social foraging humpback whale pods possess a social complexity that is rarely observed in baleen whales. For example, individuals within these groups may develop long-term associations that may last for many years. There also appears to be a division of labour, with particular whales constantly leading the group, deploying the bubble nets, and producing the feeding calls. Furthermore, on each lunge, each whale in the group maintains the same position, indicating that this is an intrinsically choreographed feeding maneuver. My own personal observations with the same feeding groups over the course of the summer also bore this out. I observed how there were always core members of a group but other individual whales appeared to join them on a much more ad hoc basis before moving off again.<br />
He ascertained that it is only the more elusive, shoaling prey, such as Pacific herring, that require the same level of cooperative cohesiveness; easier prey such as krill do not require the same sophisticated feeding strategies as do shoaling fish.
    Humpback whales-4-2.tif
  • Orcas have many of the same behavioural characteristics on the surface as humpback whales, and possibly for the same reasons. I didn't observe orcas lobtailing or breaching as much as humpbacks. It's quite likely that this orca was lobtailing to herd salmon, just as humpback whales do to shock and herd shoals of herring into bays or along a shoreline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca12.jpg
  • All the wolves that I saw in Glacier Bay were black, and the looked particularly striking in contrast with the snow in winter. Adam's Inlet was my favourite place to go in Glacier Bay, and gave the greatest sense of solitude and wilderness; there was always a good possibility of seeing moose or wolves in there. It was quite challenging getting into the inlet because there was quite a narrow twisting channel that flowed into a salt-chuck, and during maximum ebb or flood it was more like shooting the rapids, and there were a lot of hazardous shoals to avoid getting stuck on.
    Alaska-wildlife-wolf2.jpg
  • I became very familiar with the individual whales that made up the cooperative bubblenet feeding groups. I could identify them by their flukes, markings on their throats, barnacles and even sometimes by the sounds they made.<br />
I had known Dr Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation for many years during his research into the cooperative bubble net feeding strategies employed by the humpback whales of Southeast Alaska. He was particularly interested in the genetic relatedness of individual whales within and between cooperative pods, in addition to the local genetic sub-structuring of the population. He discovered that social foraging humpback whale pods possess a social complexity that is rarely observed in baleen whales. For example, individuals within these groups may develop long-term associations that may last for many years. There also appears to be a division of labour, with particular whales constantly leading the group, deploying the bubble nets, and producing the feeding calls. Furthermore, on each lunge, each whale in the group maintains the same position, indicating that this is an intrinsically choreographed feeding maneuver. My own personal observations with the same feeding groups over the course of the summer also bore this out. I observed how there were always core members of a group but other individual whales appeared to join them on a much more ad hoc basis before moving off again.<br />
He ascertained that it is only the more elusive, shoaling prey, such as Pacific herring, that require the same level of cooperative cohesiveness; easier prey such as krill do not require the same sophisticated feeding strategies as do shoaling fish.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet15.jpg