Wild Insights Extra: Humpback whales skilled strategy for survival revealed

A surprising strategy used by humpback whales maximises food intake

By Annette J Beveridge

It has long been known that humpback whales use bubble nets when hunting, but new research has discovered that in addition to creating the bubbles, the whales also calculate how to manipulate bubbles to maximise their food intake while in Alaskan waters.

For any animal, the ability to find sufficient food is the difference between life and death and the newly-revealed humpback whale strategy has been found to capture up to seven times more prey - all without using extra energy.

Food intake

Humpback whales need to eat a considerable amount each day and some of the whales use their flippers to help ensure a large mouthful of fish. They have been recorded lunging with mouths open wide to scoop up plenty of fish and will also swim upwards in a spiral while blowing bubbles underwater. This creates a circular net around the fish and makes it harder to escape.

The study was published today in the Royal Society Open Science journal and researchers at the Marine Mammal Research Programme (MMRP), UH Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and the Alaska Whale Foundation (AWF) demystified a behaviour which is key to their survival.

Professor Lars Bejder is the co-lead author of the study and the director of MMRP.

He said: “Many animals use tools to help them find food but very few actually create or modify these tools themselves. We discovered that humpback whales in southeast Alaska craft complex bubble nets to catch krill - tiny shrimp like creatures.”

Research looked at the population of humpback whales in southeast Alaska and how they ensured sufficient food intake during the summer and autumn months prior to overwintering in Hawaii. The outcome was surprising.