Iceberg And Humpbacks
You might think this was taken from a tour boat specializing in whale watching. But you would be wrong. This was taken through the open window of my truck camper parked near the seashore.
These humpback whales were after capelin. You can see five here in this shot and two more just submerged slightly out of frame ... but that was just a few of these huge creatures that were in this area all day. It was a truly mesmerizing scene and very few besides us ... if any ... were privileged to see it!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, these whales have a special stretchy tissue called ventral groove blubber attached to their lower jaw or mandible. When they lower their jaws to extreme angles and swim very quickly while feeding on small fish and krill, a drag force on this blubber causes it to expand to encompass a volume that can be almost as big as the whale itself. The jaws ... as far as I an tell from the shots I took ... open at least ninety degrees and when they surface like they are doing here they quickly snap them shut ... while the water they have taken in pours out in a torrent. Some of the small capelin do too, of course ... hence the gulls in the area.
The two in the middle here are showing their upper jaw and their pink tongue. Their lower jaws are still under the water ... but you can actually the one on the left starting to close. So, you see why I say they open ninety degrees. The whale on the right is showing its lower jaw and if you look closely you can see the brown barnacles.
Iceberg And Humpbacks
You might think this was taken from a tour boat specializing in whale watching. But you would be wrong. This was taken through the open window of my truck camper parked near the seashore.
These humpback whales were after capelin. You can see five here in this shot and two more just submerged slightly out of frame ... but that was just a few of these huge creatures that were in this area all day. It was a truly mesmerizing scene and very few besides us ... if any ... were privileged to see it!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, these whales have a special stretchy tissue called ventral groove blubber attached to their lower jaw or mandible. When they lower their jaws to extreme angles and swim very quickly while feeding on small fish and krill, a drag force on this blubber causes it to expand to encompass a volume that can be almost as big as the whale itself. The jaws ... as far as I an tell from the shots I took ... open at least ninety degrees and when they surface like they are doing here they quickly snap them shut ... while the water they have taken in pours out in a torrent. Some of the small capelin do too, of course ... hence the gulls in the area.
The two in the middle here are showing their upper jaw and their pink tongue. Their lower jaws are still under the water ... but you can actually the one on the left starting to close. So, you see why I say they open ninety degrees. The whale on the right is showing its lower jaw and if you look closely you can see the brown barnacles.