Whale Shares Meal With Diver

Did you know that food sharing is a common practice in many “whale cultures”? A diver explains this practice in further detail.

As you are probably know, there are many different whale communities around the world. Each of them has their own dialects ( different nuances of communication) as well as hunting techniques. A number of these communities practice what we are calling food sharing.

Film maker and underwater explorer, James Cameron, documents the survival skills of Whales in a new National Geographic docuseries. This docuseries is called “Secrets of the Whales”. It will present the complex ways that different types of whales communicate.

Diver Has Food Sharing Experience With Whales

Brian Skerry, a world renowned underwater photographer, records these magnificent animals in dozens of locations around the world to share with us.

In the series, Skerry experienced the chance of a lifetime when an adult female orca approached him with a stingray in her mouth. She approached and dropped the ray on the ocean floor before him. At that point, she swims out of Skerry’s view.

But then suddenly, “she swims behind me, comes around to the left side of my vision, and then the ray is between us on the ocean floor. And the whale is looking at me, looking at the ray, looking at me, looking at the ray, as if to say, ‘are you going to eat that?’ ” he recalls.

When he doesn’t eat the ray, “she very gently bends over, picks it up and turns,” he says. “And then another orca comes in, a member of her family, and they begin to food share.”

H/T wbur.org

Watch Secrets of the Whales Season. 1 below. (Episode 1 below with links to the complete series)

Skerry goes on to say that his experiences with whales “transcends any other experience for me in the ocean”, a direct quote.

Read for more details about this here on wbur.com

Images Source YouTube Clips 1, 2

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Interesting: In the following post a diver is offered a meal by a seal… So the idea of sharing a meal isn’t only practiced by whales.

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