Alaskan Cruise-Humpback Bubble Net Feeding Part Two

This set of pics shows a second round of feeding. I got to see them do this procedure about 5 or 6 times. Incredible! The pink stripe is the inside roof of the mouth. This set shows the neck pleats pretty well.

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Special greetings to those I met on the cruise ship!

Alaskan Cruise-Humpback Bubble Net Feeding Part One

These photos show the amazing cooperative behavior that Humpback Whales perform. This is a group of about 15 Humpbacks. The group is led by a large female who signals to the other whales. One whale goes down and blows a circle of bubbles below a school of small fish, like F=Krill. The fish are then trapped in the net of bubbles. Then all the whales come up through the tunnel of bubbles, with their huge mouths open, scooping up the fish. You will see all the open mouths at the surface. Humpbacks have pleated throats that expand like a ballon to trap large quantity or fish. Then, inside their mouths, baleen filters out the fish from the water. It was so cool to see this rare behavior in person!

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Alaskan Cruise-Salmon and Eagles

The first two photos show a fishing boat with a catch of salmon. Eventually a second boat pulled up and used a vacuum tube to suck the salmon out of the net.

The last three photos show bald eagles. The last two photos the eagle has a salmon in its talons.

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Alaskan Cruise-Baby Humpback Performing

These are photos of a demonstrative baby Humpback whale. This baby breached (leaped out the water) over and over again, showing off. Then the baby rolled over and waved it fin at us for a while, and finally it put it's head down and waved it's tail repeatedly, but not diving. It was great fun to see this.

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Alaskan Cruise-Sea Lions

Two photos of sea lions on a bouy is the harbor at Juneau.

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Alaskan Cruise-Glacier Photos

Below are pictures from Glacier Bay. This glacier is advancing towards the ocean where pieces regularly break off into the ocean. This is called "calving". The bottom two pics of this group show calving. There's a loud noise like a gunshot that occurs. The pieces are often very large.

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Alaskan Cruise-Orca Pics

Below are five pictures of Orca Whales, or Killer Whales. The bottom picture in this group shows a mother and baby shoulder to shoulder!

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