Bubble net feeding feed in a short amount of time. Humpback whales have a vertical throat roughly the size of a grapefruit. They cannot physically swallow anything larger than that. They are carnivores and primarily feed on small fish such as krill, juvenile salmon, and herring. They are also baleen whales, which means that they do not have teeth, so they must be able to eat things that they can swallow whole. They have several vertical grooves running down the length of their body so that they can hold large volumes of water and fish at one time. They feed for up to
Baleen whale of the world, necessitating more efficiency traveling over long distances between widely distributed prey sources which also resulted in a lower metabolic rate, and feeding on baitballs. A 2017 analysis of body size based on data from the fossil record and modern mysticetes indicates that the evolution of gigantism in baleen whales is a recent phenomenon, estimated to have occurred within the past 3.1 Ma. Before 4.5 million years ago, few mysticetes exceeded 10 meters (33 feet) in length; the two largest miocene species were less than 13 m in length. The initial evolution of baleen and filter feeding long