Friday September 24, 2004 Bubble net
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Last night, as I was channel surfing, waiting for one of the TV shows I normally watch to come on, I stumbled upon a documentary about humpback whales on the Discovery channel. |
I was fascinated how they get their food. Each day, they need to eat about 5% of their body weight. So for a 30 ton whale, this is about 1-1/2 tons of fish. They have an amazing technique for doing this. All the whales in the pod work together to bring this off.
Humpbacks can feed by creating bubble nets and swimming up through the center of the net, gulping down the small fish and shrimp trapped by the bubbles.
The fish caught in the bubble net simply don't understand they can swim out through the bubbles. Instead they are driven up to the surface where all the whales in the pod, have a fish smorgasbord.
So it just goes to show that by acting together, these whales can make the net work. There is even a t-shirt you can buy with this slogan, although I don't think it comes in XXXXXXXXXXXL size.
( Sep 24 2004, 09:01:45 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink
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