Federal law requires that all boats maintain a 100 yard distance from marine mammals. However, if you were stationery (as was the case) and the whales came to you…
These whales were engaging in bubble net feeding. If you look closely at the right 2 whales, you can see the herring. They were the lucky ones.
Awesome, Richard. Amazing to have two boats close to where they emerged. Do the boats try to follow the herring in hopes of catching this kind of action or was it pure serendipity? Either way, this is a wonderful image.
Dennis: I don’t know of any way to follow the herring which doesn’t mean that there isn’t one. The boat I was on had sonar which allowed us to know that there were herring below us but was not able to determine which direction the school was headed. Richard
I’ve seen bubble net feeding first hand and a lot of photos of the events, but this takes the cake Richard. Having the boat there (legally) adds such an important sense of scale and majesty to the event.
Thanks, Richard. I was just curious. I know some large fishing fleets hire aircraft to scout for schools, but it would take a pretty big sightseeing fleet to make it reasonable for this. I know the whale watching fleet in this area doesn’t use anything that fancy or expensive.
Dennis: I don’t know if a spotter plane would work for the herring schools, but have no way of knowing for sure. When we found schools on sonar they ranged in depths from 50 to 400 feet, so likely the school wouldn’t be visible from the air. Richard
Bingo. Herring spotters are used in shallow water, usually less than about 40’ unless the water is gin and the light angle perfect. The most successful herring boats use “active” sonar which can look all around them and pinpoint the schools for direction, distance and depth. Much like the whales!
Terrific capture Richard. Wonderful to catch these whales with the other boat in close proximity.
Richard: Marvelous shot that brings back some really good memories for me. My wife and I were on a small ship (60 passengers) cruise in September 2017 and got to witness this behavior fairly closely. We were able to follow a flock of gulls who apparently could see the bubbles rising and would fly to the spot where the whales surfaced. It was quite a show. Thanks for sharing. >=))>