Seals are fortunate that they are not on the menu for humpback whales. Last Thursday, a whale-watching naturalist managed to capture an unexpected scene—a bewildered seal trapped in the mouth of a humpback whale—in the waters off Anacortes, Washington.
The unusual encounter unfolded while a Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildlife Tours boat was observing a flock of birds flying over a school of fish. Captain Tyler McKeen noted that a humpback whale was seen swimming towards the fish, using a lunging feeding technique. This method involves the whale opening its mouth wide to engulf small fish and water. However, instead of staying submerged to filter through its baleen, the whale surfaced and began opening and closing its mouth repeatedly.
As the whale submerged again, whale watchers reviewed their photographs and videos. “It only took a couple seconds for everybody to pull up the frames and zoom in,” McKeen said. “That’s when we saw the seal. It was a funny, funny moment for everybody. I mean, it probably wasn’t that funny for the seal.”
Brooke Casanova captured a photograph showing the seal, likely also hunting the fish, emerging from the bottom of the whale’s mouth. Meanwhile, McKeen recorded a video on his phone showing the seal getting flushed out. “I’m guessing that this situation probably happens every once in a while just because there’s lots of other stuff that eat these fish too,” McKeen speculated.
Humpback whales frequent the Salish Sea, the inland waters between British Columbia and Washington state, during their migrations. Once hunted to local extinction in these waters, their numbers have rebounded over the last 25 years and humpback sightings are now a common feature of whale-watching tours. McKeen mentioned that the whale involved in the incident is known as “Zillion.”
