00479 Open Mouth Feeding

This whale has left the water with its mouth still wide open, showing us its balleen and the top of its mouth. Gulls flying around will sometimes pick fish out of the whale's mouth before it closes. This has its risks, once we watched, amazed, as a gull did not escape quickly enough. With a throat only as large around as a grapefruit, the whale couldn't have enjoyed this much either.