The Whale Cam

The Discovery Channel and The National Geographic Channel have presented some excellent nature documentaries in the last year. Two were whales vs fish.

The chances are pretty good you can guess who was still swimming the next day. Anyway, either or both of the two channels were doing some underwater shooting and picking up some wonderful pictures. One of the best was a large school of fish, with the camera underneath them, pointing up.

Then, without any warning, a whale swam in from the left, went through the middle of the shot and exited off to the right – leaving not a single fish left in the water. A clean sweep, the world’s largest vacuum cleaner, total wipeout. I just sat there, amazed, as most likely did the camera operator who may never have expected this.

The other nice experience was a “critter cam” which was somehow attached to the back of a whale, most likely a newborn. The program pretty much centered on its birth and early days. The camera was facing forward as the whale came upon various collections of fish, opened its mouth and gobbled them up.

If we only had this technology in the past, distant tho it might have been. Jonah and the whale with maybe a stomach cam to show him being swallowed and then puked up on the shore. Captain Ahab through the eyes of a critter cam on the back of the white whale. The one that split the whaling ship “Essex” in half, leading to cannibalism by the crew.