A harbor seal in the Pacific Northwest on Friday found itself in the mouth of a humpback whale and in desperate need of an exit strategy.
The image atop this post, captured by Tim Filipovic of Eagle Wings Tours, shows the moment the seal realized it needed to be elsewhere, and quickly.
A secondary image, by Brooke Casanova of Blue Kingdom Whale & Wildlife Tours, reveals a similar expression of bewilderment and fear.
Humpback whale with seal in its mouth. Photo by Brooke Casanova
Erin Gless, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, told FTW Outdoors that its member vessels were whale watching in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, southwest of Victoria, B.C., when the lunge-feeding whale scooped up the seal.
She described it as an “incredibly rare event” but stressed that the seal was not in danger of becoming prey.
“Humpback whales eat small fish and krill, not seals,” Gless explained. “While they have very large mouths, their throats are roughly the size of a grapefruit, so they can’t swallow something as large as a seal.”
Humpback whales typically feed on bait fish by lunging, either vertically or horizontally, through large schools. They can take in thousands of fish in one gulp.
The female humpback whale that gulped the seal (temporarily) is scientifically cataloged as BCX1876, nicknamed Zillion.
Gless recalled how Zillion ended up with the pinniped in her mouth:
“At one point, Zillion opened her jaws and lunged toward the surface for a mouthful of fish, but got an unexpected surprise when she realized that mouthful also contained an unsuspecting harbor seal!
“The harbor seal was likely feeding on the same small fish and found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Zillion repeatedly opened her jaw and lowered her head into the water until the seal was able to swim away.”
In reference to the image atop this post, Gless remarked via Facebook that the seal looked “like a little kid in a wave pool.”
