Humpback Feeding Frenzy

      If you’ve ever been on an expedition-style cruise and you feel the ship do a quick change in speed, or a quick change in direction… or both… you might recognize this as a signal to start looking around.  Likely some sort of significant event is happening, and in Antarctica this usually means wildlife.  The change of speed or direction is the captain attempting to get into a better position for you to view it.

      This was the case a couple times on the Greg Mortimer, and each time it was a large set of humpback whales that were feeding, in pairs, nearby.  An announcement would sometimes come over the public address system, giving folks a sense of where to look, and what to look for.  But those of us who recognize the change in ship movement were usually already out on the decks enjoying the show by this time.

      These humpbacks were not bubble feeding, but they certainly had a pattern they were repeating over, and over and over again.  Take a breath… dive for 15-20 seconds… skim just below the surface on their sides, with mouths agape… close their mouths and flop their pectoral fins around in the air… submerge for 5-10 seconds… then surface in tandem to breath again and start the same pattern again.  We watched for close to an hour each time.