Marine biologist Ari Friedlaender and his team have designed a special video camera that for the first time in history, failed to secure on the back of one of the most mysterious whale southern minke whales. With its help, scientists were able to obtain unique footage of the lives of these animals.
A minke whale, which lives in Antarctic waters is poorly known animal. He eats the same krill that large whales, but does it differently. Likes depth, but without the fear of maneuvering beneath the ice fields. Is not strength, but agility and speed movements. The main question before the camera is inserted among the oceanographers were the whales really monstrous appetite or is it fiction?
The device rests on the back of the animal on a special suction cups, but can slide along it, so as not to be accidentally reset. Thanks to the Friedlander team saw firsthand how much time and eats whales. It appeared that he accelerated to 24 km/h (it’s underwater), makes a huge breath, filter the krill from the water — and all this for just 10 seconds, after which the process repeats.
Most of the data from the camera on the back of a minke whale is still being processed, but scientists already have something to show to the public. And representatives of the fishing sector, who consider the whale as a commercial species, but are forced to take into account the distribution of krill to maintain biobalance in the Antarctic region. Greedy pinstripes will be an important indicator of the situation in different parts of the southern continent.
Source — World Wildlife Fund