What’s a Bubble Net?
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Humpback Whales, as well as other baleen whales, use bubble netting as a method to forage. Usually used when a group is feeding cooperatively, one or two whales dive down and exhale, blowing bubbles all around their prey of krill or small fish. This confuses their prey and they form a tight ball in the center of these bubbles. This virtual net of bubbles allows the whales to surface through the balled up prey to take a greater amount of food into their mouths. In this issue, we have a video clip of bubble netting Humpbacks who are still the majority of our sightings reported.
In the Orca categories, we are pleased to have the A42 family of Northern Resident Orca staying in our regions as well as the T002C family of Transient Bigg’s. In addition, few other Transient Bigg’s were spotted.
Pacific White Sided Dolphins and groups of Dall’s Porpoise were also seen foraging and transitting areas.
Boaters, please use caution on the water. Federal laws require boats to remain at least 400-m away when viewing Southern Resident Orca and for other Cetaceans, laws require boats to remain at least 100-m from the whales/dolphins. If you come across some Orca and you are uncertain if they are Southern Resident Orca, it is best to still maintain your distance of 400-m. Remember N.E.W.S. when you see a whale, meaning put your boat in NEUTRAL, ENJOY the view, WAIT till the whales are at a fair distance, and then SLOWLY leave the scene.
We acknowledge that our sightings map and archive map are not fully functional at this time, and we are working to resolve the issue.
WOWs works throught the year, so please continue to keep your eyes open, and report your sightings to us.
Review our current Volunteer Job Postings
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dives into the Coastal Cetacean world. View Cetacean sighting locations, photos and videos:
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Sightings
Open Data includes all sightings data, photos and videos, in a table you can filter and download.
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Landscape photographer Ian Wiese was filming at Point Picquet, south of Perth, as the blue whale migrated south along the Western Australian coastline.
The bowel movements were captured by a whale monitoring team, made up of volunteers who record the mammals as they head to cooler waters….
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But much of the reporting comes from the observations of terrestrial animals, with comparably little data on aquatic species. One notable example is the dolphin….
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