Drone video of gray whales offers new insight into how they eat

Drone videos of gray whales off Oregon have revealed new details about how the marine mammals find food. The findings were described in studies this summer.

Drone video of gray whales captured over seven years off Oregon has revealed new details about how the giant marine mammals find and eat food.

Among the findings, described in two studies published over the summer, are that gray whales rely on different swimming techniques to collect food based on their sizes and ages and that larger whales are more likely to exhale “bubble blasts” to help them stay underwater.

“Before this study, we thought that any whale used any of those behaviors,” said the lead author of both studies, Clara Bird, a researcher at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. “No one really thought that there was a pattern in who used which behavior.”

Bird’s research also found that whales use different eating techniques based on the depth of the water in which they search for meals and the habitats of their prey. Such information could aid future conservation efforts, she said, because it provides insight into the types of habitats that might need to be protected to preserve the whales’ access to food.

“While right now we’re not actively trying to protect specific habitats, it’s really important to know that whales of different ages might not be all using the same habitat for future concerns,” Bird said. “It’ll help us manage them moving forward.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/gray-whale-foraging-eating-drone-footage-rcna173105

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