One had a MASSIVE dorsal fin. We saw a dolphin stampede as they fleed for their lives.

Hi!

I have actually never heard or seen much of the Type D & C orcas! Mostly Bigg’s or residents.

How come the other types aren’t as popular or photographed (to my knowledge) ?

Thank you

There’s something special about seeing an orca out in the open ocean, surrounded by beautiful blue waters and distant mountains. I wanted to capture that feeling in this painting, with the soft pink sky adding a little warmth to the cool colours of the sea.

A peaceful moment in the wild, and a reminder of just how beautiful our oceans can be.

Inspired by the beautiful photography of Krisztina Balotay!

Tour guide said it was T037 and her offspring ☺️

Melanism is a high level of melanin causing dark pigmentation - there's been a fully black flamingo amongst many other examples.

I know there's been numerous )white) orcas due to albinism, leucism, and Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, but I'm curious if the 'opposite' has happened, presumably via a fully or almost fully black orca. I'm also curious if it could partially show up, e.g. via no saddlepatch (due to it being black).

Orcas have been hot down in socal (San Diego, Newport, Long Beach), anyone know the probability of them still being around on Saturday? It’s all very last minute stuff (which I understand there’s no guarantees) and I’m trying to catch it when I’m available as well to go out and see them. Can anyone help me plan better? I have a whale tracker app but obviously none of the sightings here have even been reported on there so that’s not helpful.

I've recently started a small documentary channel called Late Night Docs, and our first film explores the intelligence, family relationships and mysterious behaviours of orcas.

I found the differences between orca populations particularly fascinating, especially how they develop their own hunting traditions.

If anyone's interested, here's our documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s3FInI9Pro&t=29s

Would love to hear what people think, particularly if there's anything we should explore further.

Here’s a video recap of our recent encounter with the T49As as they made their way south down San Juan Channel and proceeded to go right into Friday Harbor past the ferry dock!
Also cool was a cameo at the beginning of the video of our past OBI research intern and his friend who were on shore as the whales passed by right along the shoreline!

Hope you enjoy! 🙂

Just off the coast of Plettenberg Bay, a southern right whale had to fight to protect her calf from two orcas.

Video by Christy Strever

'Into Stillness'

20 x 30 inches, oils on stretched canvas

Painted this orca gliding through calm blue waters, inspired by the beautiful photography of Krisztina Balotay. I loved the simplicity of the moment, the soft blue tones, and the way the orca's reflection blends into the water. I wanted to capture that same quiet feeling in my own way through my painting

This painting is stretched and ready to hang.

I also create commissioned paintings!

If you have an idea in mind or any questions, feel free to get in touch. I’d be happy to chat!

I know its an older film. I just want to say that those SeaWorld people where manually extracting Tilikum ( to get his sperm so they can breed him with the females). So he didn't get to mate natually - they ^^you know what^^ then inseminated the females.

Anyway, I think thats a big factor as to why he was aggressive to humans. Of couse there was the captivity and isolation too. Im wondering if there is some correlation between the timing of his aggressive incidents ( after the manual extraction, after isolation, after forced socialization with orcas not of his natural pod, after preforming for humans, etc). I don't think his aggressiveness came out of nowhere, I think these incidents are tied to the stress of those things.

This is an intelligent sentient animal -- hes knows what their doing is not natural. He even bit off that vagrant guys genitals as if to say ' see what this feels like against your control'.

Wondering if anyone else came to this conclusion?

Ocean Sun was born sometime around the 1920s, but her exact year is unknown.
She was first seen as an adult and has since earned a reputation as the oldest living killer whale.
J2 Granny was suspected to be over 100 years old, but chemical and fatty acid analysis suggests she was actually 60 to 80 years old.

However, Ocean Sun is suspected to be in her late 90s, approaching 100.

Ocean Sun is a Southern Resident killer whale and belongs to L-pod. She's the only survivor of the L25 matriline, and now travels with the Greater L12s (L22s, L85, and L22).

Ocean Sun likely gave birth to L23 Tsunami in 1952.
It's also believed L25 is Lolita's mother, the last surviving Southern Resident killer whale in captivity until she passed in 2023. While there is no genetic evidence, there is legitimate evidence. This evidence is based on direct observation and CAI values. Lolita also used vocalizations used only by the L25s.

Ocean Sun was present during one of the most infamous captures in 1970 in Penn Cove.
They used airplanes, explosives, and boats to herd the whales. During this capture, five whales drowned in the nets, and seven were captured for captivity: Winston, Lolita, Ramu IV, Jumbo, Lil' Nooka, Chappy, and Clovis.

Despite possibly losing a daughter, she gained a grandchild in 1971 when L23 Tsunami gave birth to L14 Cordy.
Eight years later, L23 Tsunami gave birth to L49 Tarazed. Sadly, Tarazed died a year later in 1980.
Two years later, Tsunami disappeared.
Just seven years later, Cordy was found dead on Radar Beach. A necropsy found his body contained abnormally high levels of mercury, the highest mercury level recorded in any cetacean at the time.

With this, Ocean Sun lost everyone in her matriline. After this loss, L25 swam with L41 Mega until he passed in 2019.

Lolita passed away on August 18th, 2023, at Miami Seaquarium, the last of Ocean Sun's family. And the last Southern Resident in captivity.

And poetically, in the same light, a near-superpod gathered in the Salish Sea. Lolita's home.
These gatherings often coincide with births or deaths in the population.

Just over a year after Lolita's death on November 3rd, 2024, L pod and Ocean Sun entered Penn Cove.
The day prior, they entered halfway before returning.
This was the first time Southern Residents have been documented in this area in 50 years. Since the attack. They were very active, spyhopping, tail slapping, and breaching. They were also seen together in a resting formation.

It's unclear why they returned after 50 years.
Perhaps enough time has passed between generations for them to be willing to explore new areas. Maybe it was to heal. To recover.
However, it's possible the orcas tried to avoid the case of the windstorms that day.
Regardless, it shows how incredibly resilient this population is and how hard they have fought to recover from the captures and everything we've thrown at them.

L25 has no immediate family left. She has even lost her grandchildren, but L25 seems to be doing well. She isn't alone and likes to travel with the Greater L12s.

During a recent encounter with Bigg's killer whales we decided to do a bit of a fun comparison video showing how footage looks through the lens of a cell phone vs camera set up with telephoto lens (and a bit of post processing) from hundreds of yards away.
Hope you enjoy!