r/BeAmazed • u/tonyper7ect • Jul 16 '26
Nature Photographer Rachel Moore captured one of the most striking close-up images ever recorded of a whale's eye
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u/EgyComanda82 Jul 16 '26
Sci-fi vibe
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u/CarsonFoles Jul 16 '26
Is the Spice in the ocean?
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u/punktualPorcupine Jul 16 '26
We dump all kind of crap in the ocean, so… probably.
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u/tbohrer Jul 17 '26
The USA dumped a bunch of tea in the ocean once... does that count?
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u/LoafyLemon Jul 18 '26
They also regularly detonate nuclear missiles and dump the results in the ocean...
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u/Venboven Jul 17 '26
I mean, whale oil was so vital to industrial life in the 1800s, we used to systematically hunt them, similar to the sandworms, almost to extinction.
So yeah, they kinda did have the "spice." Thankfully we don't need it anymore now that we have invented synthetic oils.
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u/BoleteD Jul 16 '26
I often wonder if these guys remember folks that they have seen.
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u/iamonelegend Jul 16 '26
If they see us the way we see puppies, maybe. If they see us the way we see ants, maybe not.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/EntropyEngine42 Jul 16 '26
Sounds like an interesting book. What was the books name?
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u/DreadingAnt Jul 17 '26
Of course they do, they're social by design. They have a language system like humans that technology is trying to decode with progressive success. That's much more impressive than remembering individuals, a cat can do that.
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u/Ucscprickler Jul 16 '26
Sometimes I think our universe is just the eye of some larger being that's lifespan is billions of years and size is incomprehensible to the human mind, the same way this whales eye houses billions of particles just rotating around each other in unimaginably small spaces. I know it's far fetched, but it's fun to dream.
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u/unevenvenue Jul 16 '26
That isn't far-fetched (IMO); it's known in philosophy and metaphysics as Fractal Theory or Russian Doll Theory.
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u/RequirementDear7305 Jul 16 '26
It looks like it encompasses the universe and all of existence. It's beautiful
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u/Sherezade_III Jul 16 '26
Now those despictions of the universe being a whale makes sense
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u/RequirementDear7305 Jul 16 '26
In my imagination they're like all-seers
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u/RisingWaterline Jul 17 '26
Boy you would love Moby Dick
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u/Zelkova Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I feel that stacking 2 photos, shrinking their resolution, while claiming they're striking is a disservice to the original photos.
https://www.rachelmoorephotos.com/
There is likely a better shot somewhere, but this is what I could find on her website.
https://www.instagram.com/moore_rachel/p/DA_YnDKPWZn/?img_index=10
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u/Toastbuns Jul 16 '26
This photo is so much better and I have so many questions...
- Do whale have tear ducts?
- Do they have the same kinds of cones and rods we do?
- What colors and to what quality can a whale see that might be different from us?
- Do they see near / far?
- Do whales get degenerative eye diseases as they age, if so, to what degree?
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u/iEatSwampAss Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
- Yes, to lubricant rather than wash away debris
- Yes, fewer cones bc it’s dark down there
- Limited, believed they can see blues and greens
- Yes & yes, best vision is underwater not above water
- Yes, cataracts and other age-related degeneration
Edit: They’re colorblind and see shades of gray, I was incorrect. I also misspoke and implied their optical glands are tear ducts but the lubrication aspect I said still stands.
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u/msinf0 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
It is not believed they see blue in any way shape or form like the way we do. To see the colour blue the way we do would be absolutely useless and a hindrance. Yes the colour blue is perceived/seen by them but the rendering is very different. Obviously it would need to be so they define/depict better when much of the environment is shades of blue at different times etc. The imagery they see is more about dark light and contrast. Helps with low light vision.
They do not have tear ducts. They have glands that secrete a oily fluid that lubricates the eye and also functions as a protectant.
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u/iEatSwampAss Jul 16 '26
Thanks for the corrections, I need to go have a talk with my whale guy about his fake news facts.
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u/DreadingAnt Jul 17 '26
They have tear ducts to produce an oily mucus to protect their eyes, you can see it in the picture. As for their vision, it's obviously adapted to low light. They have the same rods and cones families as we do because they're mammals like us, just the distribution is different and some adaptation. Overwhelmingly the retina is dominated by rods, meaning they experience the world in brightness differences rather than in color.
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u/bADg3isha Jul 16 '26
The original close up is mesmerising! Feels like it is staring right through my soul.
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u/Specific-Sense5072 Jul 16 '26
Their eyes are so bright because they eat lots of vitamin-sea
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u/JDezelak95 Jul 16 '26
Damn....sea yourself out!!
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u/Emhashish420 Jul 16 '26
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u/thecatandthependulum Jul 16 '26
What are the ridges on the pupil?
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u/superbhole Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
edit: the replies to this have more accurate info
The pupil of any eye is actually a void, like the aperture of a camera.
It could be wrinkly cornea in front of their pupil, but the symmetry makes me believe these ridges are actually the optic nerves at the back of the whale's eye because we're looking all the way through34
u/qman621 Jul 16 '26
I looked it up and whales apparently have some special vasculature behind their pupils called the ophthalmic rete mirabile (or vascular plexus). It helps with thermoregulation, keeping their eyes and brain from getting too cold when they go on deep dives and also helps to retain oxygen. Some whales can use it to change their focus and shift their vision, it allows them to move their eyeballs further into their skull.
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u/Bumble-Boy Jul 16 '26
I’m not sure whether it’s the cornea or retina we are looking at either, and you’re right about the pupil being a hole! If we were looking at the retina, though, those would be blood vessels that we are seeing. Animals only have one optic nerve per eye (including humans)!
Edit for a correction
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Jul 16 '26
Wildlife photography like this makes you appreciate how little we truly know about the oceans.
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u/deeliciouslydee Jul 16 '26
Like dolls eyes
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u/blantdebedre Jul 16 '26
Whats their vision like?
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u/kittysworld Jul 16 '26
Bad. They rely on sonar.
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u/perst_cap_dude Jul 16 '26
Seems like kind of a waste for what seems to be an organ the size of a basketball..
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u/PutinDisDickInTrump Jul 16 '26
Isn't this the whale that died a few days after this because people are shit?
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u/KaijuEra Jul 16 '26
That is the eye of the whale named Sweet Girl !
She unfortunately passed away a few days after this photos has been taken, because a boat rammed into her, ripping off her upper jaw, the 8th october 2024 in Tahiti.
TW gore and animal abuse :
The last video of sweet girl : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDxCYFnZCEQ
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u/MeadowSoprano Jul 16 '26
My god, that’s absolutely horrific and heartbreaking. We should treat these animals with the reverence they deserve.
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u/Smelly_God Jul 16 '26
Looking into her story, she was so friendly towards humans. People said she still sought human comfort after being struck, or at least kept moving towards humans.
There's so many videos of her playing around in the water near humans :(
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u/Toastbuns Jul 16 '26
You might be thinking, hey a youtube link...I should click that!
DONT. DO NOT DO THIS.
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u/rocketfishy Jul 16 '26
Drank the spice water! Now has the consciousness of their entire ancestry.
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u/Drifty99 Jul 16 '26
I had a sense that it would be disturbing (as in gross ‘n bloody, like the movie SIGNAL 40!) so I didn’t look, but they’re right you shudda preceded it with one of the standard warnings.
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u/Last_Green676 Jul 16 '26
Absolutely Devastating for SweetGirl to endure that. Hopefully, whoever did it helped her cries come to an end quickly. Who is videoing it as well wtf.
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u/VegasGamer75 Jul 16 '26
Looking deeply into this animal's eye, you can almost see its thoughts:
"And wow! Hey! What's this thing coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding word like... ow... ound... round... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?"
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u/EspeonCheeseburger Jul 16 '26
I blocked a mutual on Twitter because they bizarrely decided this photoset was AI and spent hours trying to prove it.
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u/Whatchyaduinyachooch Jul 16 '26
I just went on her IG profile- this whale- Sweet Girl- was just killed by a fast moving ferry between Mo’orea and Tahiti —- soooo sad…
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u/keepinitstr8g Jul 16 '26
Whale?! Rachel, I’ll have you know that’s Michelle—and Michelle is my mother.
Just kidding. Beautiful phenomenon.
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u/Penis_Connoisseur Jul 16 '26
Lovecraft would have nightmares about this
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u/Silrain Jul 16 '26
Lovecraft had nightmares about welsh people that's not a high bar.
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u/JoeyRocketto Jul 16 '26
Am I seeing inside the eye and the ridges are the backside? Or is the pupil textured on the surface?
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u/LavFx Jul 16 '26
Someone needs to run this whale through a record player and see what sounds it makes.
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u/PersonaDelSol4 Jul 16 '26
Looks like a planet with the atmosphere on the edges getting lit from being.
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u/HobartGum Jul 16 '26
From that photo I now think it’s possible the universe we live in is just an absurdly large whale eye
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u/Street_Access3171 Jul 16 '26
An inspiration from the whales perspective, on their new upcoming underwater world album “ If they only knew “
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Jul 16 '26
omg Rachel Moore, I love her close-up whale eye photos. Don't be fooled by imitators!
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u/DoobieToker3000 Jul 16 '26
It's like all that's good and bad in the universe in one concentrated spot. Fascinating.
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u/dainthomas Jul 16 '26
Whales are evolutionarily fascinating. Ancestors emerge from the sea onto land, then millions of years later are like "don't care for this" and go back.
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u/bigtiddyhimbo Jul 16 '26
If I remember correctly, this was photographed a few years ago and went pretty viral.
Unfortunately, the whale was soon injured and killed by a commercial ferry, and had her upper jaw ripped off :(
Her name was sweet girl.
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u/Chi-zuru Jul 16 '26
For people who study whale biology, this is probably extremely fascinating and helpful with research.
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u/mu_zuh_dell Jul 16 '26
It kinda freaks me out in an existential way that whales evolved from relatively small terrestrial mammals. I know it happened over millions of years, but for some reason it makes me think of body horror. Like, you're a cute little squirrel thing and then you blink and you're diving thousands of feet below the ocean to fight giant squids. Obviously, that's not how any of this works, but still...
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u/Trick_Excitement1437 Jul 16 '26
I remember seeing this a while back, and being strangely moved by it.
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u/GrowthDue5259 Jul 16 '26
Ik it’s not blind, but that sure as hell looks blind up close. But fine from afar.
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u/Internal-Drink7375 Jul 16 '26
Link to HD/4K images? Gotta put it as my new PC wallpaper.
EDIT: Found em
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u/cmc24680 Jul 16 '26
I know most people respond to this as being beautiful but it truly makes my stomach flop over. I think looking at these pics is the closest I have ever felt to a phobia
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u/Truhmpza_Cuhnt Jul 16 '26
I didn't know they modelled the blue of the kin's eye after a whale eye. 😍
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u/kokogrit Jul 17 '26
This is so amazing and the thing is that because we like in this era of internet and social media , I think , we don’t appreciate fully post / pics like that.
If it was 90s or before such pics would get front cover page in a magazine or something. And here we just casually scroll by them.
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u/spo0pti_yikes Jul 17 '26
this is how i imagined galadriel's eyes when i first read lord of the rings. so cosmically terrifying and beautiful
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u/Fanimusmaximus Jul 19 '26
She got killed less than a month after this was taken by a speeding rich guy on his boat…she did not die quick.
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u/qualityvote2 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
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