Kim Andre Gjellestad couldn’t believe his eyes when he was on a car trip with his uncle on Thursday evening. They were on their way back from Bø in Vesterålen to Sortland. Then they noticed something moving in the water – and it wasn’t exactly small. – Three times I counted over 80 pieces, and came out of the count. Gjellestad estimates that he and his uncle witnessed 80–100 gate-keeping incidents that evening. SOUND: The ground quail that Kim Andre Gjellestad observed made a lot of noise. – They whistled and sang, he says. Photo: Private Have never experienced anything like it The experience was one of the rare ones. One thing, says Gjellestad, is encountering so many troubles out in the open sea. – But not that far into the fjord. They were, as it were, all the way up in the spring rocks where they swam. Kim Andre Gjellestad had been to dinner in Bø municipality, but got a surprise on the way home. Photo: Privat Vesterålen Online mentioned the case first. Gjellestad has his theories about what might have lured them. The Eidsfjord has been a very good herring fjord. – But there was no hunting for fish, so it may be that they had finished eating. That they just relax and such. STORE: This is what a gate quail looks like. They can be up to 8 meters long. Photo: Hannaleena Väisänen / Arctic Whale Tours Gjellestad believes he witnessed a very rare event. – It was quite spectacular, he says. Together with his uncle, he stood for an hour and watched the tormentors. – They whistled, sang, clapped their tails and fins when they swam there. It was a wonderful sight. INTO LAND: Grind quail this far towards the shore is not an everyday phenomenon. Photo: Privat Facts about wrasse Norwegian small quail catchers caught “long-finned” wrasse in the period 1942–1975. Today the species is protected. Grind whales are toothed whales that belong to the dolphin family. In the area around Norway, it is the long-finned bream that can be found. The males are 5–6 meters long, while the females are no longer than 4–5 metres. Squid is the species’ most important food, but the sea urchin also eats fish. Grindqualheen can live to be closer to 60 years old, while the males rarely live more than 45 years. Torment researcher: – A lucky man Sofia Aniceto says it was a lucky man who discovered the torment. – Kim Andre was very lucky, and he should be very happy that he has experienced this. She is qualified researcher and postdoctoral fellow for the department of biology at NTNU. Aniceto can confirm that it is an unusual sight, this far into the shore. – Grindqual is approx. 6–8 meters long, says Aniceto. Photo: Thomas Heggem – It is a bit unusual that they are so far into the shore. They are very relaxed and take it very easy. Seeing the barnacles out in the open sea is not that abnormal, she says. For many, it may still be an unusual experience, precisely because we are more concerned with what happens near the coast, and there may be many torments in the sea that we do not discover. Social being Aniceto says that people generally know little about this type of whale, but that based on their movement pattern they are a bit like killer whales. – But we don’t know how much noise they make and how they are affected by different industries and such, or what they eat. But we know that they like squid and several types of fish. – It doesn’t seem like they are stressed. It seems that they are having a good time, and it may seem that they are socializing quite a bit. And exactly that is a characteristic of the quail type. – They talk a lot and are extremely structured. So they are empathetic and smart animals, says Aniceto. In the video, she notices a number of quail cubs in smaller groups. – It seems that there is a lot of socialization. They come in jumping, and walk with their tails up, says the researcher.
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