What is small, silver and flashy? One hint: it’s not “Her Ring.”
Hi, I’m Dennis Rogers for the Petersburg Marine Mammal Center.
Pacific herring are one of Southeast Alaska’s most important marine species. As large schools arrive in spring and move along the intertidal regions to lay their eggs, the spawn creates a celebration for wildlife who have endured the lean months of winter and anxiously await foraging on the high caloric herring. Marine mammals and birds strategically feed together to reap the benefits of the herring.
Humpback whales in Southeast Alaska have developed a unique strategy to capture the elusive herring by working collectively as a group of up to two dozen whales to corral the herring. They create a ring of bubbles at depth that rise to form a bubble net trapping the herring from escaping.
This behavior is commonly referred to as cooperative bubble-net feeding and is well orchestrated.
The lucky fish that jump out of the water and away from the whales’ mouths are snatched up by the gulls circling above.
Near the coast where the herring gather for spawning, Steller sea lions cut through the school of fish, and killer whales thrash through the concentrated mass in pursuit of a few, scattering the herring along the shoreline where eagles swoop down to pluck single fish from near the surface.
This spectacle of activity is one of the heralds of springtime in Southeast Alaska, and at the center of it is this beautiful flashy fish. And depending on your perspective, they are worth more than every shiny wedding ring in the world (but don’t tell your wife that).
