We believe the good folks at Seven-Eleven think they developed the term “big gulp” in reference to their largest drink cup. In fact, the humpback whale is the original “big gulper.”
I’m Sunny Rice for the Petersburg Marine Mammal Center.
Imagine 40 tons of whale powering from the water below, suddenly lunging fifteen feet above the surface. Lunge feeding is used to engulf large amounts of prey. As a humpback moves toward its prey, it opens its mouth while prey-laden water gushes inward. The rush of water expands the throat grooves, creating a huge pouch that can hold 15,000 gallons of water. That is a lot of water. Imagine a water tank that is over twelve feet long on each side. Quickly closing the mouth, the prey is trapped inside. With an upward thrust of the tongue, excess water is expelled through baleen plates that trap food inside the mouth.
In Fredrick Sound, humpback whales specialize in bubble net feeding, which is rarely seen elsewhere. Whales work together in a group to herd herring up to the surface from deep water. They flash the bright white undersides of their flippers and broadcast loud, repeated feeding calls. The feeding calls are so loud they can even be heard above the surface.
Once the group gets the herring up to about sixty feet, one whale begins releasing a stream of bubbles from its blowhole. The bubble blower circles around the herring, releasing up a curtain of bubbles like a fishermen’s net. The fish won’t cross through these bubbles. All the whales rush into the bottom of the net chasing the frenzied prey to the surface. If you are watching from above you’ll suddenly see herring jumping clear of the surface to make a last frantic escape. Then the whales burst through the surface behind them with wide-open mouths as they synchronize their arrival with a spectacular group lunge.
And that is the real story behind the “big gulp”!
