What kinds of small fish do humpback whales eat?

Humpback whales don't typically eat small fish. They are filter feeders and prefer to eat krill, which are tiny crustaceans, and small schooling fish.

While they can consume some small fish as part of their diet, their main food sources are:

* Krill: These tiny crustaceans are a major food source for humpbacks, especially during their feeding season.

* Small schooling fish: They will often engulf large schools of fish like herring, anchovies, and sardines.

Humpbacks have baleen plates in their mouths instead of teeth. These plates act like giant sieves, allowing them to filter out small prey from large amounts of water.

They usually use a technique called bubble-net feeding to trap their prey. This involves blowing a curtain of bubbles around a school of fish, which then traps them within the bubbles and allows the whale to easily consume them.

So, while some small fish might be consumed accidentally, they are not a primary food source for humpback whales.