Seal Photographed In The Mouth Of A Humpback Whale

SEATTLE (AP) — It’s a very good factor seals aren’t on a humpback whale’s menu.

{A photograph} by a whale-watching naturalist captured a seemingly bewildered seal within the mouth of a humpback whale after the enormous marine mammal by chance gulped it final Thursday within the waters off Anacortes, Washington.

The meals mix-up started whereas a Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildlife Excursions boat noticed birds flying over a faculty of fish and a humpback whale swimming towards it, Captain Tyler McKeen mentioned. He mentioned the humpback then used a lunging feeding method, the place the whale opens its mouth vast and takes in small fish and water. However as a substitute of remaining underwater afterward to filter by way of its baleen, it surfaced and started opening and shutting its mouth.

After the whale went again underwater, pictures and movies had been checked by whale watchers.

“It solely took a pair seconds for everyone to tug up the frames and zoom in,” McKeen mentioned. “That’s once we noticed the seal. It was a humorous, humorous second for everyone. I imply, it most likely wasn’t that humorous for the seal.”

{A photograph} by Brooke Casanova reveals the seal, which presumably was additionally looking the fish, rising from the underside of the whale’s mouth. McKeen recorded a cellphone video the place the seal is getting flushed out.

“I’m guessing that this example most likely occurs each from time to time simply because there’s numerous different stuff that eat these fish too,” McKeen mentioned.

Humpback whales go to the Salish Sea, the inland waters between British Columbia and Washington state, throughout their migrations. Humpback whales had been hunted to native extinction in these waters, however over the past 25 years, their numbers have recovered and are actually routinely seen in whale-watching excursions, McKeen mentioned.

He added the whale that by chance gulped the seal is named “Zillion.”

This story has been up to date to appropriate a part of the whale watching firm’s title to Wildlife from Wildfire and the title of the whale.