This man was just filming seagulls when all of a sudden he caught an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime scene.
Brad Rich was out on a boat trip with his friends in Alaska, far from the coast of Seward. They came to film the beautiful birds that live in the area.
If ever there was a picture of being in the “right place, at the right time, at the exact moment,” this guy’s experience is it. People who take pictures of amazing nature events like these should win an award and show those who aren’t so lucky.
Is there something even better than the show? This is the real, shocked, and unedited response. That’s what someone says when they are completely amazed.
Brad got more than just a bunch of happy seagulls. His movie has been watched over 19 million times on YouTube alone, and a lot more on other sites as well. Make sure you watch the video first, then learn what’s next. You do not want to know what happens!
Humpback whales have been seen eating on bubble nets.
The whales were coming up, and Brad could hear them. He held his camera steady as the whales sounded. The very loud pod broke the surface at 0:56 seconds, setting off a wild chase of birds and fish. When Brad and his friends saw it, they were so amazed that they couldn’t stop yelling. What was even better was that the whales chose to swim right next to their boat. They must have been curious about all the fuss.
Bubble-net eating is a complicated behaviour that whales do that makes for a beautiful show. Whales are some of the ocean’s strangest creatures. It is hard to understand them because they act in strange ways and are very unreliable. But this is also a sign of being very smart and having great adjusting skills.
Seeing the bubble-net routine is something that most people who go on tours to see humpback whales are interested in. However, humpback whales are migratory and like to travel with other whales. Most whale species live, move, and eat alone. But sometimes, they can join forces to make what is called a “bubble net,” in which a group of whales break the water’s surface at the same time to catch tonnes of prey that doesn’t know what’s coming [2]. This strategy, which is also known as “cooperative feeding,” is used to scare and confuse the food, which is usually a group of seabirds or fish. There can be as few as two or three whales in the bubble net at a time or as many as sixty at once, based on how strong the group is.
How does it work?
One reason it’s hard to say when it might happen is that humpback whales can choose to eat alone or in bubble nets.
While bubble-net feeding is going on, a lot of things are happening, which shows how biologically smart cetacean animals can be. There is one whale in charge of the whole event, and it moves very quickly as it goes deep. The lead whale blows air up as it goes up, which makes a big wave that pushes fish to the surface. Along with making their own bubbles, the other whales follow closely behind. One humpback weighs between 25 and 30 metric tonnes, so you can understand how rough this can get. They line up around their food like a fence and eat as many as they can before the bubble goes away. The fish can’t handle the noise, and very few, if any, are able to get away from the strong net.
Humps can eat up to 3,000 pounds of fish every day in the summer. They eat all summer long, putting on a lot of weight so that they can breed in quiet places during the rest of the year.
