Page 102 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators
P. 102
Sharks & Ocean Predators
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Gray whale
A barnacle-encrusted gray whale is trapped
by an early freeze up off the coast of Alaska
The gray whale is one of largest predators of and as the barnacles eat plankton just like
the oceans at a whopping 36 tonnes. These the whale, they often benefit from a free
sea-bound behemoths are usually covered meal whenever the whale swims through
in parasites that transform their hides into plankton-filled waters in order to feed.
something resembling a weathered ocean The gray whale is a baleen whale, meaning
rock rather than the skin of an animal. This that they do not have teeth and eat through
doesn’t harm the animal though – in fact, it’s filter feeding. They use their snouts to forage
a symbiotic relationshop where the whale for food on the seafloor, using special fi lter-
as well as the barnacle benefits. For the like plates in the upper jaw to strain out the
whale, the barnacles act as a suit of armour, suitable nutrition.
© Michio Hoshino/FLPA
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