Passengers on a cruise ship in Antarctica were treated to an exceptionally uncommon and beautiful sight last year. There they saw a massive crowd of baleen whales feeding on a massive amount of krill for as far as the eye could reach.
According to recent research, titled "Commercial Krill Fishing Within a Foraging Supergroup of Fin Whales in the Southern Ocean" published in the journal Ecology, that evaluated film obtained by the lucky whale watchers, the real number of whales in the feeding frenzy may have been closer to 1,000, rather than several hundred.
This picture taken on November 20, 2016 shows a mother Bryde's whale (L) and her calf feeding on anchovies in the Gulf of Thailand, off the coast of Samut Sakhon province.
Largest Feeding Frenzy of Fin Whales
Like other baleen whales, fin whales extract their food from the water using baleen plates. The fin whale is the world's second biggest animal, behind the blue whale.
Guests onboard the National Geographic Endurance, a polar exploration cruise ship operated by Lindblad Expeditions in partnership with National Geographic, witnessed the incredible spectacle in Antarctica on January 13, 2022. As per National Geographic, the ship was about 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) north of Coronation Island when it came across the largest feeding frenzy of whales.
The group was mainly composed of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), a baleen whale that can grow up to 85 feet (26 meters) long, second only to blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus).
The video of the feeding event posted on the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic YouTube channel on March 8, 2022, shows fin whales lunging for food at the surface and filling the air with jets of water ejected from their blowhole.
Zoologist Conor Ryan, who is also a resident naturalist aboard the cruise ship, said that the congregation of baleen whales they found north of Coronation Island was beyond belief.
An estimated 830 to 1,153 fin whales, as well as a few humpback and blue whales, had collected to feast on a rich area of krill off Coronation Island, which is located north of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Stanford University scientists reviewed images and recordings of the event and said this vast gathering of baleen whales may be the largest witnessed since the cessation of industrial whaling in the late 20th century. The previous greatest documented assemblage of fin whales was only 300 animals.
Matthew Savoca, a marine biologist at Stanford and co-author of a new paper, said that such an event would not have been so unusual a little more than a hundred years ago when hunting whales did not threaten their population yet.
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Fin Whale Population on the Rise Again
All the baleen whales were feeding on the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superb). These tiny swimming crustaceans form massive swarms and attract smaller fish who were also feeding on them.
Live Science reported that the area is a massive upwelling zone where ocean currents force nutrient-rich waters from the deep to go up the surface, allowing a feeding event and providing the necessary food for a rapid explosion of the population of krill.
Ryan said in the video that there must be millions, perhaps even billions, of tons of krill below the surface where the baleens are feeding. Nonetheless, they are glad that fin whale populations are rising again after the historic whaling almost decimated them in the mid-20th century.
Now, there are approximately 100,000 individuals worldwide. Still, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species still listed the species as "vulnerable" due to pressures ranging from climate change, and plastic pollution, to overfishing of krill by humans. The sight of such a large group provides hope for the future of fin whales.
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