Hi everyone!!

My name is Leila, I’m an undergraduate studying ocean science and marine conservation and I have just finished my undergraduate dissertation article on the causes/triggers for the orca interactions that have been happening in Spain and Portugal since 2020. I will not be getting my grades back for a while, but I am hoping to potentially get this rewritten for publication as I think I may be onto something here!! But it’s only my first ever piece of scientific writing and could use some other opinions!

So I was wondering if there are any marine biologists or lecturers (or any fellow orca enthusiasts ☺️) in this group who would be interested in taking a look at my article and letting me know what they think/ if they think it’s worth trying to publish and offer me any advice moving forwards whilst I’m waiting on my results from the University

Please message me if you’re interested in taking a look!!

Thank youuu 💗

I’m currently in Washington for work and planning a whale watching trip for memorial weekend. I’m in between Anacortes or Port Angeles. Depending on where I go I’ll plan other activities around this, just curious which spot is best. Thanks!

Dedicated to Jack, T137A, and all the whales that were/are in captivity ❤️

It’s little known or appreciated that orcas, unlike most animals except humans, maintain an acute sense of self from an early age, as shown by Springer and Luna, both about 2 years old and yet both capable of taking care of themselves. If solo for any reason they also tend to gravitate toward interactions with friendly humans and are capable of entering into trusting relationships with those who offer friendship. Habituation is a loss of self and an attachment to an external influence. An animal with a strong sense of self may not be susceptible to habituation, although the development of trusting relationships may appear to be habituation when in fact the animal knows exactly who she is the entire time. Photo of 2-year old orphan orca Brave Little Hunter, alone in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island by Bay Cetology.

Does anyone know where to watch the new Resident orca documentary online? Been waiting for so long and can't seem to find much

It is currently unknown how the metal entered his habitat.

Link to an Article explaining in greater detail (in French):

https://www.leparisien.fr/alpes-maritimes-06/mort-dune-orque-au-marineland-dantibes-inouk-avait-avale-un-bout-de-metal-05-04-2024-PGRWJ7KKFRFNLFAZNYO76VAJOU.php

I’ve been wanting this tattoo forever and I’m v happy with it. I got 7 orcas to represent my pod 🤗

Male orcas are known to pair up together to bond in ways that are seen as homosexual, female orcas have also been documented doing the same with one another, killer whales are not monogamous animals and bounce from one individual to the other, regardless of sex.

Are there any whale watching tour companies you'd recommend? I'm looking for a trip that lasts maybe 6 hours max, with minimal/no stops. This was really easy to find around the canary islands but now I'm struggling lol!!

Hi all, I am taking the drive up to around Deception Pass tomorrow in WA state and was wondering if it was worth it to stop by Anacortes tomorrow for orca watching? Wasn't sure if it's too early in the year or perhaps it's warm enough for there to be orcas there? Thanks

I understand that there is many very valid reasons as to why an Orca would not want to attack a human. Nutritional value is one of course, they want eat fattier animals i understand that. Culture could be another, it’s been passed down from generation to generation that humans are an apex predator which are not to be trifled with. But now let’s take that same logic and apply it to human beings. Certainly, human beings have a huge stigma against killing other human beings, it doesn’t grant any sort of tangible benefit, and it will lead to ONLY bad consequences- however some humans, for whatever reason whether it be neurological disorders or anything else, still choose to do it. How is it, that despite Orca clearly being immensely complex and intelligent animals, there is NO exception to the rule that Orca do not attack people in the wild?? Like surely with any intelligent species it should be expected that certain members of said species will deviate from what is considered “normal”, but that isn’t the case here? It doesn’t make any sense to me and leads me to believe that it is likely that Orca either have a more developed sense of self preservation, or are just straight up more intelligent than humans. Open to suggestions but like i say, the fact that there is NO exceptions to this rule; for an intelligent species, is highly unusual and borderline inexplicable to me.

It had to venture into the sea in search of food while our ancestors had to do the opposite. (https://youtu.be/GimCcrwYxdE?si=e40Q_xUr4AJKaFcO)

Water is just another barrier that living species had to overcome to have semi controllable sorroundings (land) and organs like hands, legs to manipulate those sorroundings and invent, to survive.

With the amount of intelligence, culture, language skills Orcas developed while being in the extremely volatile and unforgiving oceans, I feel like they would have been a strong contender to humans if they remained on land.

KUOW - Orcas are actually not one species, but three

Kind of a clickbaity/misleading headline but I didn't want to editorialize it. For those interested in the scientific details I highly recommend reading the original paper - Revised taxonomy of eastern North Pacific killer whales (Orcinus orca): Bigg’s and resident ecotypes deserve species status

TL;DR:

• Authors argue, using genetic/ecological/morphological evidence, that 'resident' and Biggs ('transient') orcas in the North Pacific should be reclassified as distinct species within the same genus rather than the monospecific genus all orcas are classified as now. The proposed names are Orcinus ater and Orcinus rectipinnus respectively.

• "The remainder of killer whales globally, including the North Pacific offshore ecotype, will continue (for now) to be classified as Orcinus orca, with substantial taxonomic uncertainty remaining."

• Recognizing the distinction = better for conservation of specific ecotypes

The second point is why I said KUOW's headline was a little misleading. Biggs and resident orcas are arguably the two most well-studied orca populations in the world, meaning there's enough evidence to backup the author's argument of them being distinct species; the other orca ecotypes aren't as well documented and thus would remain in the more "generic" Orcinus orca species classification until or unless further studies are done to differentiate them too.

Inouk has died at Marineland Antibes

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/video/c2892779-community-trying-to-save-orphaned-orca-calf?binId=1.1184694

This is a follow up to the news of the stranded female Orca in Zeballos, BC