Whale Footprints

Just as we humans leave behind prints in the sand when making our way across a sandy beach, humpbacks leave tell tale signs of their most recent surface locations.  Observable for minutes after a whale dives, these whale "footprints" were once believed to be oil slicks.  Although a semi-effective tracking tool, the oil slick theory is no doubt a biased observation from whalers hunting these gentle giants.  We now know that whale footprints are caused by the turbulence of their tails as they kick to duckdive.