Underwater camera captures humpback whale feeding on bait ball off B.C. coast
An amazing sight off the west coast of Vancouver Island has been captured on camera and it all began when a whale was spotted surfacing in Barkley Sound.
The humpback whale, along with some sea lions, was going after a bait ball, which is a swarm of small fish that swim together to protect themselves from predators.
Cinematographer Peter Mieras was testing his underwater camera when it fell to the bottom of the sound.
By sheer chance, when he retrieved the camera, he discovered it had captured some amazing footage of the humpback feeding on the bait ball.
“You can’t plan this, this is just dumb luck,” Mieras told Global News.
He has filmed around the world but captured what may be his best work just off his dock in Barkley Sound — by accident.
“I was doing some tests and I was recording and the camera was underwater,” he said. “So, I was reeling the camera up to the surface and as it reached the surface, the full weight of the setup broke the line of the fishing rod. So, down my camera went.”
Mieras was ready to gear up for a dive to retrieve it when the action started.
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“And it was at that point when I thought, ‘Oh, if my camera is still running, that would be amazing’,” he said.
Mieras said the response to his video has been overwhelming with several outlets expressing interest in using the video for educational or documentary purposes.
“There was this moment of ‘eureka’ when I saw the humpback whale come through the footage and feeding on the actual bait ball,” he said.
“That was like, ‘Oh my lord, this is just brilliant footage’.”
Jackie Hildering, a biology teacher, cold-water diver, underwater photographer, and humpback whale researcher, told Global News that the whale is named Oreo, due to the ‘o’ shaped spot in one of its flukes.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
