Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Alaska's Trumpets of Doom

Most hunters use stealth to catch their prey.

04elmerfudd Be vewy, vewy quiet, I?m hunting wabbits, ha-ha-ha.

Then there?s humpback whales.

26whalesong [WHALE CALLS]
These are the calls of a group of humpbacks as they cooperatively hunt herring in Frederick Sound near Petersburg ALASKA. University of Washington researcher Kate Stafford recorded them aboard the John N. Cobb last summer.

Humpbacks don?t always hunt by using sound, or blowing nets of air bubbles, or lunging out of the sea. But scientists and tourists alike enjoy witnessing humpbacks hunting and eating together.
[SNEAK UP EXCITED WHALE TOURISTS MID-TRAK]
Here?s whale-watch tour guide Anthony Andrews standing on the roof of the Orca Odyssey tour boat near Juneau last fall.

04anthony1 I really wish you guys wd get a chance to see bubble netting, that?s a time where they use vocal commands, I?ll never forget the 1st time I heard it, it was there in Barlow Cove she sounds just like a woman, woooooooo, Next thing, bam! 20 whales explode at the surface, mouths agape 80-90 degrees, they look like a 50-ton bullfrog. oq: it?s just amazing.

While tourists may learn that humpbacks are telling each other what to do as they hunt, researchers aren?t so sure.

Fred Sharpe is a humpback researcher with the Alaska Whale Foundation, which is based in, Seattle, actually.
04fred1 ?Others would differ, but most evidence?. Suggests prey herding as opposed to coordination.?

That evidence includes underwater videos Sharpe has made by attaching salami-sized critter-cams to humpbacks with suction cups. He?s also played whale recordings to fish in the laboratory to see how they flee from the trumpets of doom.
[trumpet]

Whatever the whales? purpose in hunting so loudly, Sharpe says there?s no evidence that humpbacks in the Atlantic or in the South Pacific, hunt with sound, or with the complex teamwork that whales here use.
04fred-unique We still really don?t know that much about these sounds? Only the N Pacific coast population? and only when feeding on herring.

When humpbacks hunt herring cooperatively, the members of the group are usually not related to each other. But each member will have a specialized task. Sharpe says each whale holds on to its specialized task for many years, like a professional with a career.

04Fred-socialpods. They are globally unique and remarkably humanlike? I?d be surprised if they didn?t have union cards.

Sharpe says Alaskan humpbacks form the most enduring bonds and have the most complex hunting tactics of any humpbacks. And why are humpbacks such sophisticated hunters? Biologist Jan Straley with the University of Alaska Southeast in Sitka chalks it up to the jagged coastlines where humpbacks swim.

04Jancoastal. I think it?s because they?re more coastal inhabitants than some other large baleen whales. they have learned to use thr surrounding landscape as a tool for herding, helping to herd their prey. Whether it?s a shelf edge? where the other whales are out feeding out in the mid ocean ? but probably nothing as complex as humpbacks.

Straley says there are a lot of misconceptions about the way humpbacks hunt. She told me I could do a public service by telling people to stop expecting to see groups of hungry whales lunge-ing out of the water.

04Jan2 ?because that?s all that?s emphasized on TV documentaries. A lunge-feeding group of humpbacks is atypical. They do it, it?s fascinating, complex, it?s everything Fred says it is, but it?s not the usual feeding behavior that you will see.

Straley says humpbacks usually feed in the depths, alone or in a pair, with little to see at the surface other than a quick appearance of their chocolate-chip-shaped dorsal fin. She says she?s waiting for a nature documentary to show how boring humpbacks are to watch most of the time. In Juneau, I?m John Ryan