Seal develops whale of a problem after feeding mishap; photos

A harbor seal in the Pacific Northwest on Friday found itself in the mouth of a humpback whale and in dire need of an exit plan.

A harbor seal in the Pacific Northwest on Friday found itself in the mouth of a humpback whale and in desperate need of an exit strategy.

The image atop this post, captured by Tim Filipovic of Eagle Wings Tours, shows the moment the seal realized it needed to be elsewhere, and quickly.

A secondary image, by Brooke Casanova of Blue Kingdom Whale & Wildlife Tours, reveals a similar expression of bewilderment and fear.

Humpback whale with seal in its mouth. Photo by Brooke Casanova

Erin Gless, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, told FTW Outdoors that its member vessels were whale watching in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, southwest of Victoria, B.C., when the lunge-feeding whale scooped up the seal.

She described it as an “incredibly rare event” but stressed that the seal was not in danger of becoming prey.

“Humpback whales eat small fish and krill, not seals,” Gless explained. “While they have very large mouths, their throats are roughly the size of a grapefruit, so they can’t swallow something as large as a seal.”

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Humpback whales typically feed on bait fish by lunging, either vertically or horizontally, through large schools. They can take in thousands of fish in one gulp.

The female humpback whale that gulped the seal (temporarily) is scientifically cataloged as BCX1876, nicknamed Zillion.

Gless recalled how Zillion ended up with the pinniped in her mouth:

“At one point, Zillion opened her jaws and lunged toward the surface for a mouthful of fish, but got an unexpected surprise when she realized that mouthful also contained an unsuspecting harbor seal!

“The harbor seal was likely feeding on the same small fish and found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Zillion repeatedly opened her jaw and lowered her head into the water until the seal was able to swim away.”

In reference to the image atop this post, Gless remarked via Facebook that the seal looked “like a little kid in a wave pool.”

Watch: Orca punts seal 70 feet into the air ‘among the gulls’

Images and video footage captured off Washington State show an orca punting a harbor seal 70 feet into the air.

Transient orcas off the U.S. West Coast prey on marine mammals and sometimes toss the smaller animals to stun or kill them.

The accompanying images, captured by researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, show a male orca using his flukes to fling a harbor seal an astonishing 70 feet high.

“It’s still the most astounding thing I’ve seen,” Schulman-Janiger, co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project, told FTW Outdoors. “A momentous moment in my life.”

The harbor seal hunt, off Port Angeles in Washington State, occurred eight years ago and Schulman-Janiger shared her images Tuesday as a Facebook memory.

The event was also captured on video and that footage is posted below. (The video description places the height of the seal at 80 feet.)

The orca, or killer whale, belongs to a family cataloged as the TO69s. The standout punter is TO69C, who was about 20 years old at the time. That’s considered a young adult.

Schulman-Janiger described the event on Facebook:

“After three failed attempts, adult male T069C tossed a harbor seal more than 70 feet up into the air – sending it flying wide-eyed above the circling gulls!

“I took five photos after my highest capture, with no seal in sight; lowered my camera, looked for the seal – and saw it splash down next to the submerged orca several seconds later!

“His mom T069 and two siblings were hunting nearby; all enjoyed harbor seal for lunch.”

After the spectacular event, there was considerable debate about the height of the seal at its apex. The 70-foot estimate is considered conservative.