Despite being some of the biggest animate being ever to have graced the planet , the life of many whales still remain an enigma . None more so than those cetaceans that experience in the distant southerly oceans . Now , for the first time ever , researchers haveattached cameras to Antarctic minke whalesin a bid to get a peek into their mysterious life-time .
When it comes to baleen whales – those which filter out small crustacean from the H2O – the minke whale is a tyke . Measuring in at just 8 to 9 meters ( 26 to30 feet ) long , they are the 2nd smallest , but also one of the least understood .
A squad of scientists on an military expedition with WWF Australia managed to attach a photographic camera to a minke giant with suction cups , and recorded some awesome footage of the whale ’s lunge feeding , give away at the same time that they can move amazingly quick through the frigid waters .
“ The video show the tagged minke moving at up to 24 kilometres per minute as it accelerates to flow , ” explain Dr Ari Friedlaender , of the University of California Santa Cruz and who led the tagging , ina argument . “ We could see item-by-item eating lurch and the expansion of the pharynx pleats as they filled with prey - laden piddle . ”
“ What was noteworthy was the frequency of the lunges and how quickly they could process water and feed again , echo the task about every 10 seconds on a eating nosedive . He was like a Pac - Man continuously feeding . ”
The research conduct in these waters , and the data collected on the feeding behaviour of the whales will help in the expansion of devil dog protect area in Antarctica . There is presently serious vexation that the feeding grounds of baleen whale , along with those of penguins , seals , and seabirds , overlap with the prominent krill fisheries that also engage in the southern sea .
It ’s thought that the sportfishing boats that police these water are catching too many of the petite crustaceans that bear out the food chains in Antarctica and they ca n’t replenish tight enough . Combine this with the impact that mood alteration is likely to have on the universe of krill , and the position for much of the top predators at the bottom of the worldis not looking great .
This is why many environmental organisation are calling on politics to rage up the protection of these region . Last calendar month , Greenpeacelaunched a campaignto sway the Antarctic commonwealth to create the worldly concern ’s turgid wildlife reserve over a patch of urine around the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula five sentence the size of it of Germany .
