Groundbreaking Footage Shows Humpback Whales Creating Bubble Nets To Trap Prey (Video)

This is one of the most amazing things you will see in the wild. A breathtaking new video by the University of Hawaii shows humpback whales swimming in a circular pattern while blowing bubbles to create a “net” to encircle their prey. For the first time ever, the university’s researchers captured this regular whale behavior from an amazing whale’s-point-of-view along with drone footage.

The video shows whales swimming around a school of fish in an ever-narrowing spiral, building an ever-narrower bubble wall with the air they blow out. Finally, they swallow their prey by swimming through the confined space with their mouths open. "The footage is rather groundbreaking," said Lars Bejder, director of the UH Mānoa Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP). "We're observing how these animals are manipulating their prey and preparing the prey for capture. It is allowing us to gain new insights that we really haven't been able to do before."