Acrobatic whale feeding

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/acrobatic-blue-whales-can-sneak-up-on-krill.html?_r=0
New whale feeding technique

To capture enough food, blue whales use a technique called lunge feeding. They take enormous gulps of water, then let it pass through comb-like mouth filters called baleen, keeping krill behind for consumption. This allows the massive whales to get thousands upon thousands of krill, enough to feed them.

However, a new study reports, they also do an acrobatic roll to help them capture krill more effectively.  Researchers explain that the whales sometimes roll 180 degrees, so their backs face the seafloor as they accelerate and move forward to open their mouths for a lunge. This lunge is simply a more effective way of attacking the massive packs of krill. More effective means more food.

 

This picture is of a blue whale using the more effective method to eat krill

 

Two of the main researchers of this project noted that "They engulf from right beneath the krill patch so they are less likely to be seen" "This minimizes the escape of the krill". After completing the roll the whale flips another 180 degrees and continues on swimming normally. The process in whole takes about 20 to 30 seconds, but the weird thing is only about half the whales did this and of the whales that did it was only used about 10% of the time. Now you may wonder why so little? Well one thought is that it is only used for small patches of krill to maximize the catch. www.blue-whale.info/Blue_Whale_Diet.html This site is the all know about the blue whale and all of its feeding techniques.

 

My opinion of this would be that I am wondering why the blue whales only use their more effective method about 10% if they use it at all. I am curious to see why they don't use it more, seeing as it would mean more food. There must be some reason they aren't and that's what I want to know.