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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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  • The tightly packed baleen plates are clearly visible. They are smooth on the outside, and coarse and bristly on the inside. They have a series of 270-400 fringed overlapping plates hanging from each side of the upper jaw, where teeth might otherwise be located.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet31.jpg
  • This was the place where I observed and photographed their spectacular cooperative feeding using a bubble net the most. Their baleen plates can clearly be seen in this photo. They have about 330 pairs of dark gray baleen plates with coarse gray bristles on the inside hanging from the jaws. They are about 25 inches (0.6 m) long and 13.5 inches (34 cm) wide. They act as filters to trap their prey when they shut their mouths and expel the water.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet1.jpg
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglia) lunging during cooperative feeding using a bubble net, the Morris Reef, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
This was the same cooperative bubble net feeding group of 5 whales that frequented the Morris Reef and I had many close encounters with. This photo clearly illustrates the structure and function of the baleen plates hanging from the roof of the whales’ mouth; they are smooth on the outside and frayed and bristly on the inside, thus creating a dense mat of coarse hairs to prevent any prey from escaping. The clearly defined palette in the roof of the mouth is also visible as is the common, distinctive pink “moustache” marking on the snout.
    Humpback whales-18.tif
  • This photo shows how much the whales' jaws are distended when lunge feeding like this. A solitary Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) can be seen in the middle as well as the bristles on the inside of the baleen plates.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet11.jpg
  • This was the cooperative bubble net feeding group of 5 whales that regularly frequented the Morris Reef and I had many close encounters with. This photo clearly illustrates the structure and function of the baleen plates hanging from the roof of the whales’ mouth: they are smooth on the outside and frayed and bristly on the inside, thus creating a dense mat of coarse hairs to prevent any prey from escaping. The clearly defined palette in the roof of the mouth is also visible as is the common, distinctive pink “moustache” marking on the snout.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet12.jpg
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglia) cooperative feeding using a bubble net, the Morris Reef, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I remember this group of bubblenet feeders very distinctly because I had many close encounters with them on the Morris Reef. There was a core group of the usual 5 or 6 individual whales and they were creating a lot of bubble nets. On this occasion they were so close to me that I had to remove my headphones because the sound of their feeding call was so loud and piercing. It was a sound that became so familiar to me, and was so ingrained in my mind that it constantly haunted my thoughts. I would imagine that it has the same effect on their prey. <br />
The baleen plates of one of the whales are clearly visible, and the means by which the water is filtered through them retaining any prey in its mouth.
    Humpback whales-20.tif
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) lunging during cooperative feeding using a bubble net, the Morris Reef, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
The tightly packed baleen plates are clearly visible. They are smooth on the outside, and coarse and bristly on the inside.
    Humpback whales-19.tif
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) cooperative feeding using a bubble net, I You Seen Cove, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet30.jpg
  • Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet29.jpg
  • Sometimes the cooperative feeding group would surface unexpectedly. If the sea was calm and there were plenty of seabirds around to help me to track the whales then it was easier, but if it was more difficult to see the bubbles on the surface or there were distracting sounds of boat engines in the vicinity then anything could happen, and on this occasion the whales exploded out of the water right behind me and I barely had enough time to swivel around to take a photo.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet21.jpg
  • Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet23.jpg
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) cooperative feeding using a bubble net, Morris Reef, Point Hayes, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet26.jpg
  • This photo clearly illustrates how distended the whales’ throat becomes when they lunge to the surface. They can dislocate their jaws like a snake does, and when they first reach the surface their jaws are open almost a full 180 degrees and their throat-poach hangs from their lower jaw like the throat-pouch of a pelican. The colouration of the throats varies and it was another means of identifying individuals. The open ventral pleats of this one appear to be pink because of the lack of pigmentation revealing the blood-rich tissue beneath. They really are a curious sight when their throats are fully distended like that, and they reminded me of Jabba the Hutt from the Star Wars movies.<br />
The formation of this bubble net feeding group also shows how there is always at least one lead whale that surfaces vertically, while the rest appear in a more lateral position around it. The individual whales that are regular members of the feeding group always maintain the same position in the tightly choreographed arrangement during the feeding ascent.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet3.tif
  • Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet22.jpg
  • This photo illustrates the power of the whales when they surge to the surface. Their gaping jaws, scooping up hundreds of litres of sea water and fish, must exert a tremendous amount of drag. Some of the herring they were pursuing can be see flying through the air to escape their open mouths.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet20.jpg
  • Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet13.jpg
  • This feeding group clearly illustrates a typical formation with either one or two lead whales ascending vertically out of the water and the rest surfacing on their sides. Sometimes there was more than one lead whale, but quite often it was just one.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet19.jpg
  • It seemed like there was an ever-increasing number of pleasure boats every year from the early days when sometimes I was blissfully alone with the whales all day. There was an increasing number of whale-watching boats as well as research boats; on one occasion i witnessed twenty different boats surrounding a pod of bubble netting whales. Most of the time the whales just continued their behaviour uninterrupted, but sometimes I witnessed them aborting their lunging and moving away to get away from a particularly noisy and intrusive boat, which included a research boat on one occasion.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet28.jpg
  • This was my first successful entry in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. I was Highly Commended for this photo of a lunge-feeding whale in the endangered species category in about 1994.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet2.jpg
  • This was a typical bubble net feeding group with a permanent core of six individuals, but the size of the group would sometimes expand to about ten with the arrival of “guests”.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet18.jpg
  • I had stopped for a rest along this stretch of coastline and came across this mummified carcase of a dead minke whale. I removed a small section of its baleen plates, which I was later able to use in my school presentations to show the children exactly what baleen plates look like and how they work. I also found a lot of nautilus shells washed up on that stretch of coastline and miraculously managed to transport the incredibly fragile wafer-thin shells back to England. They are some of the most exquisitely beautiful objects that I have ever collected.
    Kayaking- Gulf-of-California47.jpg
  • Here is one member of the “Fantastic Five”, as I dubbed them, feeding on the Morris Reef. It clearly illustrates the moment when the whale shuts its jaws very quickly and firmly, and any water contained is forcefully ejected out through the baleen plates, and any prey is trapped inside its mouth. Also 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.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet10.jpg
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) cooperative feeding using a bubble net, the Morris Reef, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
Here is one member of the “Fantastic Five”, as I dubbed them, feeding on the Morris Reef. It clearly illustrates the moment when the whale shuts its jaws very quickly and firmly, and any water contained is forcefully ejected out through the baleen plates, and any prey is trapped inside its mouth. Also 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.
    Humpback whales-13-2.tif
  • 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.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet9.jpg