Drone footage shows acrobatics of foraging gray whales off Newport coast
Drone footage captured by Oregon State University researchers off the coast of Newport offers new insights into how a gray whale’s size affects its foraging behavior and what role social learning may play in how the whales develop new acrobatics to find food.Researchers at the university’s Marine Mammal Institute captured the footage over seven years. They said it shows how a gray whale’s movements – including forward and side-swimming, headstands and the use of “bubble blasts” – change as whales age and grow.Younger, smaller whales tend to use forward swimming behaviors while foraging and older, larger animals are more likely to use a head-down position called a headstand to push their mouths into the ocean floor, said researcher Clara Bird.“Our findings suggest that this headstanding behavior requires strength and coordination. For example, we often see whales sculling much like synchronized swimmers do while they are headstanding. It is likely this behavior is learned by the whales as they mature,” Bird said.The new study shows that whales change foraging tactics depending on the habitat and depth of the water. For example, they’re more likely to use headstanding on a reef because their primary prey, mysid shrimp, tend to aggregate on reefs with kelp, Bird said.The study also reveals why the whales perform “bubble blasts,” big single underwater exhales that produce large circle patterns at the surface.Larger, fatter whales were more likely to bubble blast, researchers said, especially while performing headstands.It was previously thought that bubble blasts help gray whales capture prey, but the study shows the blasts are a behavioral adaptation used by the whales to regulate their buoyancy while feeding in very shallow water.The research focused on a 200-member subgroup of gray whales that spend their summers feeding off the coast of Oregon, Washington, northern California and southern Canada rather than traveling north to the Arctic as most of the 19,000 gray whales in the Eastern North Pacific population do.The whales that don’t travel north face elevated exposure to human activities – boat traffic, noise and pollution – while they feed in the shallow waters along the Pacific Coast, Bird said.Researchers say the findings, published in the journal Animal Behaviour and in Ecology and Evolution, can help protect the whales in the future.— Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.
Drone footage captured by Oregon State University off the coast of Newport offers new insights into how a gray whale’s size affects its foraging behavior and what role social learning may play in how the whales develop new acrobatics to find food.
Drone footage captured by Oregon State University researchers off the coast of Newport offers new insights into how a gray whale’s size affects its foraging behavior and what role social learning may play in how the whales develop new acrobatics to find food.
Researchers at the university’s Marine Mammal Institute captured the footage over seven years. They said it shows how a gray whale’s movements – including forward and side-swimming, headstands and the use of “bubble blasts” – change as whales age and grow.
Younger, smaller whales tend to use forward swimming behaviors while foraging and older, larger animals are more likely to use a head-down position called a headstand to push their mouths into the ocean floor, said researcher Clara Bird.
“Our findings suggest that this headstanding behavior requires strength and coordination. For example, we often see whales sculling much like synchronized swimmers do while they are headstanding. It is likely this behavior is learned by the whales as they mature,” Bird said.
The new study shows that whales change foraging tactics depending on the habitat and depth of the water. For example, they’re more likely to use headstanding on a reef because their primary prey, mysid shrimp, tend to aggregate on reefs with kelp, Bird said.
The study also reveals why the whales perform “bubble blasts,” big single underwater exhales that produce large circle patterns at the surface.
Larger, fatter whales were more likely to bubble blast, researchers said, especially while performing headstands.
It was previously thought that bubble blasts help gray whales capture prey, but the study shows the blasts are a behavioral adaptation used by the whales to regulate their buoyancy while feeding in very shallow water.
The research focused on a 200-member subgroup of gray whales that spend their summers feeding off the coast of Oregon, Washington, northern California and southern Canada rather than traveling north to the Arctic as most of the 19,000 gray whales in the Eastern North Pacific population do.
The whales that don’t travel north face elevated exposure to human activities – boat traffic, noise and pollution – while they feed in the shallow waters along the Pacific Coast, Bird said.
Researchers say the findings, published in the journal Animal Behaviour and in Ecology and Evolution, can help protect the whales in the future.
— Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.
Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.