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Purpose of bait balls

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The article says that the purpose of bait balls is that it makes the fish less likely to be eaten than they would be as lone individuals. I think this explanation is a bit weak. If all of the fish darted away in different directions, more would survive -- but they must stay together (e.g., traveling to spawning grounds, heading for river/ocean), so this isn't an option. I've also heard another explanation: the swarm is intended to look like one, massive animal and intimidate predators. This also seems a weak explanation... it obviously does not work. Predators are not intimidated, but enticed, and readily feed on the bait ball. I believe there is a much better explanation...

Shoals must stay together for reasons of survival. As an individual fish in a shoal, what would give you the best chance of survival when predators attack? The answer is simple: using your comrades as shields. Packing tightly into a ball, each individual hopes to get to the center of the mass and put its fellows between itself and danger. This invokes the characteristic swarm behavior, and forms a rolling ball of fish. Those who stay packed in the middle of the ball will often survive attacks by predators and live to see another day. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.175.23 (talk) 18:45, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As Wikipedia editors, our role is to report, in a balanced way, what can be verified with reliable sources. We are not meant to conduct original research, but should confine our reporting to what is in the reliable sources. Thus, every assertion should have a citation. What we think as editors doesn't count. However, what you say about bait balls is true. Schooling fish like herring evolved to live in schools, and if one is isolated, say in an aquarium tank, it become sluggish and appears anxious and disoriented. Because these fish live in the open water column, they have nowhere to hide if they move away from the school. As you say, leaving the school is not really an option. In the short term, more fish might survive a bait ball attack if they all disbanded at the same time and went separate ways. But over a longer time span, the now isolated fish would not survive anyway. There is more stuff on why fish school in shoaling and schooling, and also in swarm behaviour. --Epipelagic (talk) 00:43, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Rorqual whales

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An angry warring editor has been replacing, on articles everywhere as well as the Bait ball article, the term rorqual whales with rorqual. He/she reasons that rorqual is a type of whale, so it is redundant to refer to them as rorqual whales. Of course that is technically correct, but in my view "rorqual whales" is a more transparent term for many readers, probably most readers, who will not be aware that a rorqual is a type of whale. --Epipelagic (talk) 05:57, 7 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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