FEATURE WHALE CONSERVATION
O n a calm, cold afternoon in early March, in Neko Harbour on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, a humpback whale is making a series of moves that - to me, at the time - have no obvious purpose.
First, the humpback raises one of its outsized pectoral fins - which can reach up to 5m in length, longer than a typical estate car - as if asking for permission to speak in class, before diving and resurfacing. Then it raises the fin again, carrying on like this for another 15 minutes.
Chris Johnson, oceans science manager for WWF-Australia, is watching from a nearby boat and releases a drone equipped with a video camera. The footage transforms what appears from sea level to be a set of random exercises into a stunning performance as choreographed as any ballet.
As it turns out, the pectoral fin is being used as a rudder to steer the humpback in a tight circle while it blows a ring of bubbles. Once that’s done, it dives down and then surges up through the middle of the ring, engulfing the bounty corralled by the bubbles in its cavernous mouth. The whale is bubble-net feeding for krill, its primary food source
