How Do Whales Get Barnacles?

For a hungry barnacle, the rim of a baleen whale's nostril isn't a terrible place to be. When the whale swims through a cloud of plankton for a meal, the barnacle — which also feeds on the tiny, floating organisms — gets free table service. All it has to do is extend its feathery, filtering arm and wait.

How do whales get barnacles off?

Whale lice are orange colored patches around the barnacles and in crevices of the whale's body such as creases and the mouth line. To get rid of the whale lice, whales rub themselves along the sea bottom or breach. Gray whales feed on bottom sediments and scrape off barnacles and whale lice as they feed.

Do the barnacles on whales bother them?

Those patchy white spots you see on gray whales are barnacles. ... They don't harm the whales or feed on the whales, like true parasites do. Barnacles don't serve any obvious advantage to the whales, but they give helpful lice a place to hang onto the whale without getting washed away by water.