For the first time, researchers have captured humpback whales “wake-riding” behind a ship.
Two years ago, a team of marine biologists was fast asleep on a research vessel off the coast of Brazil when the captain woke them with a harried announcement: There was a “huge animal” following the ship. The bleary-eyed scientists made their way to the stern, where they found a trio of humpback whales riding the ship’s wake—behavior never previously documented in such large whales. For more than an hour, the researchers watched as the whales swam less than 10 meters behind their ship.
Scientists have long known smaller marine mammals such as dolphins will ride the waves that emanate sideways from vessels, known as divergent waves. The low-pressure troughs created by these waves enable the agile animals to swim with very little effort. The humpbacks off Brazil, however, were riding waves emanating from the stern, known as transverse waves.
The whales, which can grow to 17 meters long, were likely using the ship’s wake to save energy as they began their annual 4500-kilometer migration from Brazil to their winter waters off of Antarctica, the researchers say. Whale calves in particular stand to benefit from wake riding, notes biomechanist Frank Fish of West Chester University, who wasn’t involved with the study. Calves need to surface more often to breathe than adults, and thus experience more drag.
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