Few animal species are less in need of an image upgrade than the majestic humpback whale. But scientists have recently collected evidence that the marine mammals blow playful bubbles akin to the smoke rings blown by old-timey cartoon cowboys, once considered a hallmark of cool. Compiling footage of 12 such ring-production episodes, the researchers recently reported their findings in Marine Mammal Science.
Although humpbacks and other whale species have long been known to blow bubble nets that can corral prey for capture and to puff strings and bursts of bubbles when competing for mates, this is the first time that researchers have documented humpbacks producing large bubble rings at the ocean’s surface—apparently friskily directed toward humans.
“We show they are blowing bubble rings in our direction in an apparent attempt to playfully interact, observe our response, and/or engage in some form of communication,” said Fred Sharpe, an animal behaviorist and coauthor on the paper, in a statement.
The 12 reports of humpbacks making bubble rings—39 produced by 11 individual whales—came from researchers, naturalists, and citizen scientists who photographed or videoed the episodes in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The authors then interviewed the observers to glean more information about their bubble ring experiences. Only two of these episodes were associated with foraging, while the authors suggest that the remaining 10 involved inquisitive interactions with humans aboard boats, swimming, or in light aircraft.
The research was conducted under the umbrella of Whale SETI, an organization that seeks to decode the intricacies of humpback whale communication as an avenue to understand non-human intelligence in the context of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
And just for the record, smoking is NOT cool. But bubble-blowing humpbacks are. 
Lead image: Molly Gaughan
