A ‘recently discovered’ whale feeding strategy has turned up in 2,000-year-old texts about fearsome sea monsters

In 2011, researchers observed a previously unknown feeding strategy in whales, now called tread-water feeding or trap-feeding. It was thought to be a new technique developed by specific whale communities.
Trap-feeding is one of several whale feeding strategies first recorded in recent decades, including lunge feeding, lobtail feeding and the dramatic bubble-net feeding, when whales create a fence of bubbles to herd krill or fish together.
In trap-feeding, whales lie at the surface of the water with their mouths open. This allows shelter-seeking prey species such as herring and krill – which do not perceive a stationary object as a threat – to shoal into their open mouths. The whale then heaves its mouth closed, trapping hundreds of prey in a single gulp. This behaviour has been observed in the Gulf of Thailand in Bryde’s or Eden’s whales, and in Canada in humpback whales.
But it appears parallels to this behavior were also documented in medieval literature, as we describe in a new paper published in Marine Mammal Science.
A ‘recently discovered’ whale feeding strategy has turned up in 2,000-year-old texts about fearsome sea monsters