Alaska: Spirit of the Wild
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:19:02
under the lengthening daylight.
:19:06
So rich are the waters
:19:08
humpback whales swim nearly
4,000 miles from Hawaii

:19:13
to revel in Alaska's
season of abundance.

:19:48
Humpbacks fast for eight months
:19:50
in the relatively sparse waters
of the tropics

:19:53
where they breed and give birth.
:19:57
For survival, they depend
almost entirely upon the krill

:20:01
and small fish
that concentrate here in summer.

:20:06
To capture
the immense quantities

:20:08
of food they need
:20:09
some humpbacks have devised
an extraordinary technique

:20:13
of cooperative feeding.
:20:16
Diving in unison
:20:17
they surround
a school of herring

:20:19
while one or more
sings a ritual feeding song.

:20:27
Simultaneously, a whale blows
a circular net of bubbles

:20:32
around the fish.
:20:40
Then, as the trap is completed
:20:42
the entire group rockets upward
through the bubble bath.


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