Humpback whales blast bubbles for team hunts

Humpback whales blow circular nets of air to trap their dinner inside a shimmering cage. These bubble nets act as a confusing visual and acoustic barrier that corrals fish without the whales having to make physical contact.

A single whale dives deep and begins swimming in a tightening spiral, exhaling a steady stream of bubbles from Its blowhole. As the air rises, it creates a vertical curtain that corrals thousands of herring into a frantic, dense cylinder.

While one whale builds the wall, others in the pod scream. They emit deafening, low-frequency bellows that bounce off the bubble curtain, creating a sonic trap that panics the fish and forces them toward the surface.

The bubbles don't just block the fish; they act as a one-way mirror. To the fish inside, the wall looks like a solid, glowing barrier, but the whales can see right through it from the outside.

Once the prey is tightly packed at the center of the ring, the whales pivot and surge upward with their mouths wide open, swallowing hundreds of pounds of fish in a single gulp. This isn't an instinctual behavior every humpback is born with. It's a learned cultural tradition, passed down through specific pods like a recipe for a massive, communal feast.

Researchers recently discovered that some whales even use their pectoral fins to paddle additional fish toward the bubble wall, effectively using their limbs like oversized salad tongs.

In some populations, whales take on specific roles during the hunt, such as blowing the bubbles or vocalizing to herd the fish. Even more bizarre is that humpbacks have been observed aggressively intervening to protect seals and other whale species from attacking orcas.