Nature · 2
What technique do humpback whales use to herd fish into a concentrated mass before lunging upward to feed?
Answer
Bubble-net feeding — swimming in circles below a school and releasing air to form a cylindrical net of bubbles
Humpback whales blow air from their blowholes while spiralling upward beneath a fish school, creating a rising curtain of bubbles that traps and concentrates the fish. The whales then breach through the centre of this 'net' with mouths open, engulfing thousands of fish in a single lunge.
💡 Did you know?
Humpback whales create 'bubble nets' by swimming in circles below fish schools, then breach through the center to feast on thousands at once.
Other options people guess
- Tail-slapping — striking the water surface repeatedly to stun fish with shockwaves
- Spy-hopping — rising vertically out of the water to locate and track fish schools from above
- Fluke-charging — accelerating directly into a school at high speed with the tail raised
Topics
- humpback-whale
- marine-mammals
- feeding-behaviour
- ocean
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