Epilogue (Marine Mammal Welfare)

Day 1. It’s getting darker, the water is cooling at the surface, and I can feel it cold against my back as I surface. I’ve been feeding for about half an hour, and the small fish I am gathering into my mouth are quite easy to collect in the still water tonight. The other humpback whale, which is feeding next to me, is quietly resting on the surface at the moment, and I can hear his blows intermittently when I also surface. I swim and then allow the water to flow into my mouth and to expand my jaws and open the ridged throat grooves and folds which allow me to scoop the fish and small food creatures into my mouth and then to concentrate them as they are held against the baleen plates in my mouth. I move slowly to the left and right as I move forward, sensing the density of the fish like wavering shadow clouds in the water. After taking several scoops, I rest for a short time and then start swimming actively to move toward another density of fish, which I can sense and see in the water. I feel a slight pulling sensation on the right side of my jaw and then a more distinct sense of something tight across the tissues of my mouth as it closes.