Breaching and jumping
 A bottlenose dolphin jumping out of the water. Photo: NASA
Breaching describes a behaviour that involves a whale leaping out of the water
in a vertical or nearly vertical direction. When the animals falls back onto the surface
of the water, splashes are produced that can be visible from as far as several kilometres
away and the accompanying soud may be as loud as a cannon shot. Many whale species have been
reported to breach at least occasionaly, but the behaviour is most common and pronounced in
humpback, right and sperm whales. Requiring considerable strength, breaching may have several functions, ranging from
being a play and muscle excercise for young whales to being a means of display of power
during intraspecific competition for mates. Other explanations suggest that it may sometimes
help the whales to rid themselves of external parasites, to breathe more easily during
a storm, or it may sometimes be part of the animals' foraging behaviour, meant to stun potential prey.
There are other forms of surfacing commonly seen in cetaceans, such as bow-riding or
spy-hopping, often seen
for example in dolphins. It is not entirely clear yet what the significance of these behaviours may be.
Possible explanations range from an energy-efficient mode of transport to orientating above the water
surface, getting rid of parasites or simple play.
Ecological Significance of Cetaceans
 Ambulocetus attacking a primitive perissodactyl. Painting by Carl Buell (www.olduvaigeorge.com), used with permission.
All cetaceans are carnivorous and therefore are and always have been an important part of marine ecosystems. The Eocene archaeocetes,
the oldest cetaceans known to science, started as virtually terrestrial animals, although there is evidence that the most primitive
family, the pakicetids, may alsready have foraged in freshwater. Considering the otherwise cursorial
adaptations of these animals, it seems possible, however, that the earliest cetacenss chased their prey on land.
With their inceasing dependence on water, their hunting techniques also changed. Ambulocetus has been speculated to
have ambushed its prey from below the water surface, in a manne similar to that of extant crocodiles. Later archaeocetes, such
the protocetids and the basilosaurids had assumed feeding habits similar to that of the extant odontocetes
Whereas the latter primarily prey on fish and invertebrates such as squid (including the giant squid Architeuthis
and the colossal squid Mesonychiteuthis), and even other marine mammals, including large whales, mysticetes have developed a different approach.
They only feed on small schooling fish and zooplankton, most notably krill. Thanks to recent studies, it has become increasingly clear that large animals and
top predators, such as the orcas, play an important role in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, for example by keeping
the numbers of their main prey species down, which otherwise would quickly reproduce and outcompete many other animals in
their habitat. The interactions of baleen whales and krill in the Antarctic Ocean in this context are unforyunately poorly understood so far, as is the role of whales as nutrient distributors through their excrements.
A sperm whale devouring a giant squid (Architeuthis. Image by Fritz Geller-Grimm, from a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History; open source licence CC ASA 2.5.
Large whales also play an important role in another ecological context, which was only recognised rather recently.
Whale carcasses (also called whale falls) weighing more than 30 tonnes often find their way into deep waters, reaching
bathyal or even abyssal depths in excess of 1000 m. In these depths, scavenging is greatly reduced and the carcasses,
including the lipid-rich (ca. 60 %) bones, serve as a massive source of organic material for decades, at times housing more than 30000 animals at once. As such, they can support communities
of animals independent of sunlight, similar to those found around hydrothermal vents.
Though being very episodic and localised events, whale falls are relatively common events and probably served as an evolutionary bridge from continental margin to hydrothermal vent settings, as shown by molecular studies of vent organisms.
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