WATCH: This is how a whale traps its prey in its mouth

WATCH: This is how a whale traps its prey in its mouth

The footage is from a small segment from the 'Oceans' episode of 'A Perfect Planet', a documentary that is narrated by the legendary Sir David Attenborough.

Whale feeding strategy
Screenshot from video

Drone footage of an Eden’s whale's unique feeding strategy has our jaws on the floor. 

The video was captured in the Gulf of Thailand and is the stunning work of renowned wildlife filmmaker, Bertie Gregory.

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Explaining this type of feeding strategy, which shows the whale keeping its mouth wide open along the water’s surface and a school of fish swimming into it, Gregory said that it was rather "extraordinary behaviour" and is as a result of pollution.

"This extraordinary behaviour (where the whale treads water!) is thought to have developed because pollution has made the Gulf of Thailand a hypoxic environment. Sewage outflows from the land have caused all the oxygen in the water to be used up, except at the surface. This means the whale’s fish prey can only live in this surface layer," wrote Gregory.

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He further stated that by treading water and keeping the corners of their mouth below the surface, a flow is created pulling the fish into the whale's mouth. In the panic, some of the fish also seem to jump out the water and into the whale’s mouth!

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IMAGE CREDIT: Screenshot from video

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