This ingenuity, coupled with the marine mammals’ advanced social behavior and communication, led scientists to suspect they were missing something.

It turns out they were right.

Each April, a salmon hatchery in southeastern Alaska releases young fish into the sea, part of an effort to replenish overfished populations. A few humpbacks have learned to show up every year to partake of this human-made buffet. To capture the whales' dietary habits from various perspectives, researchers took photo and video from aerial drones and floating platforms around the hatchery.

In doing so, they recorded a behavior never before confirmed by scientists.

After blowing a bubble net, two whales used their flippers to create a second barrier inside the bubbles, moving the appendages up and