A FEEDING FRENZY
Whales don’t have particularly conventional feeding habitats. They don’t like to limit their eating to the restrictive confines of breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have instead decided to feed all day, every day, for the entire summer. It’s an interesting sort of diet and it certainly wouldn’t work for everyone. Here at Gentle Giants, we thoroughly support the decision of the humpback whales to be big and beautiful. We do not judge them for eating more than a tonne of krill every day. In fact, we take delight in these behaviours.
When our passengers set sail on their whale watching trips, they are often eager to see some of the more acrobatic types of behaviours such as breaching and splashing. Yet nothing makes our passengers smile like watching a forty-tonne whale happily guzzling down krill. If you look closely, you can often see the whales closing their giant mouths at the surface, water dribbling out from between their baleen plates. If we are lucky, they then lift their tail and disappear into the depths of their exclusive dinner party. There is definitely something in the water at the moment. In the last week several whales have come to the bay to join in the feeding frenzy.
Seeing so many whales feeding is not only impressive. It is also incredibly important. Like worried parents we eagerly watch the behaviours of the whales each year to make sure they are keeping well. Summer time in Skjálfandi bay is the time of year where these whales must stuff their mouths with as much food as possible. When they migrate away from the bay’s rich waters, there is a limited amount of food for them to eat. With climate change causing changes in food availability, it is difficult to predict how creatures with such big appetites will be able to sustain themselves in the future. It is important that we appreciate such moments while they last. Through awareness and working together internationally, we can make positive change to keep scenes like this alive.
Come to Skjálfandi bay and see for yourself how the whale’s diet in style.
-Trina (Guide)
A humpback whale lunge-feeding. (Photo: Charla Basran [Researcher/Guide])