After months of migration, a 30-metre-long blue whale arrives in the icy Southern Ocean around Antarctica. The long voyage from tropical regions has made it hungry, and it is searching constantly for food. It could not have come to a better place.
A huge pink shoal of crustaceans, tiny krill, appears out of the ocean gloom. The whale accelerates directly towards the shoal, opens its huge mouth, and allows 100 tonnes of water and krill to flow through the baleens in its upper mouth. The whale closes its mouth again, forcing out the water. But the krill are captured, continuing into the creature’s stomach.
The first meal of the day has been secured, but the whale is still hungry, so more will hopefully follow. In one single day a blue whale can eat 16 tonnes of
