Orca!

I really, really love killer whales! I'm most familar with Southern Residents & Pacific NW Transients but I love learning more about all types of orca. Also interested in other cetaceans & some other forms of marine life.

[j42echo-blog]

J28 Polaris. She isn’t looking well. This is so sad.

Photos by Ken Balcomb

[j42echo-blog]

T137A. 

Photo (and a bit of a story about him!) by Gary Sutton - his stories & photos on Whale Tales are great.

[j42echo-blog]

[thestrandingorcas]

The young in Patagonia have been given names!

PNOR posted on their facebook last night about how the school children who’re naming the PTN orca have come to a decision about names for the five young individuals in the PTN pod! (READ PNORS POST HERE!)

Juvenile PTN-023 who is part of Magas group has been given the name Karut, meaning “Thunder” in Tehuelche Mica’s calf has been named Aiken which means “Life” in Tehuelche, and Llen’s calf has been named Shotel which means “Arrow” in the same language! There’s also Jazmin’s calf named Enid and Valen’s calf named Emyr. These are Welch words meaning “pure soul” and “king”, and this is what PNOR writes about the Welch names;

It is the first time that Welsh names are picked for these orca. It is in honour of the first European immigrants that settled down Chubut. They arrived in 1865, 151 years ago) from Wales and lived in harmony and peace with the Tehuelche people!

PNOR has also said that all these calves are gonna be given individual ID numbers eventually, and of course I’ll keep you posted when that happens! 

[spekkhoggere]

ew20160425 DSC_3864 -1 by Selena Rhodes Scofield Via Flickr: J pod in Active pass April 25, 2016, J17 princess Angeline, J35 Tahlequah and J47 Notch

[dadbot]

Just in case

[sappire-charizard]

I’m actually going to reblog a thing just because this is really important.

As someone who has epilepsy and used to have several grand mal seizures a day, I’d also like to add that “offer help” can range anywhere from keeping the person calm to explaining to them where they are and what they were doing to even just telling them they should sit and rest for a while longer (lack or coordination is common, and it can be hard to walk straight or see clearly).

It’s okay for them to take up to a half hour to fully regain their bearings and sort out what they were doing prior to the seizure. Just answer any questions calmly and be there for support.

If they come around and you start to panic or shake them or ask them what the heck is wrong with them they are going to freak out and panic too.

I cannot stress it enough that this is bad.

If someone has a seizure and they come out of it, please. please stay calm. They are likely disoriented and confused, even if it’s only for a minute or two, and you don’t want them panicking on top of that because they can have another seizure as a result.

[felicityredbarrow-blog]

IMPORTANT

[happylittleblogger]

IMPORTANT because last year a kid in my class had a seizure, none of us even knew he was at risk for them either so just cause you don’t think you know anyone doesn’t mean you don’t 

stay safe

[kyuofcosmic]

I have to stress how important it is to time a seizure. If it lasts more than a few minutes, call an ambulance.

DO NOT CALL THE POLICE. I’m dead fucking serious. I had a grand mal in public once and the POLICE were called and imagine coming out of the seizure, feeling like you got smacked in the head with a sack full of bricks, confused, dazed, in desperate need of some sugar to boost low blood pressure and some DIPSHIT has called the police and I was being threatened with being ‘drunk and disorderly’. It took a phone call to my doctors office to get them to back off. The police cannot properly deal with sick people. 

Offer help can be:

assuring person where they are/what time it is

getting them something to drink if they can; seizure burns so much energy and does cause a blood pressure drop

getting them safely to transport or a carer

getting them some dignity like a blanket/towel [loosing control of your bladder and bowels is fucking horrifying]

ensuring they have a way to get home. Someone who has just had a seizure should NEVER DRIVE straight after

calling emergency services if you notice any of these symptoms because they may have stroked out.

Why you shouldn’t put anything in someone’s mouth: they will choke. Yes, they may bite their tongue but I can assure you it’s less traumatic than cracking your jaw on someone’s greasy wallet or choking on a spoon.

DO NOT HOLD ANYONE DOWN. Example: someone pinned my right shoulder mid-seizure a few years back and how I have a permanently displaced and clicking shoulder. Let the person flail around, those muscles are out of control and restraining them does cause more damage to the patient and you.

[earthybitchywitch]

ALSO QUICK LEGALITY: YOU HAVE TO RECEIVE CONSENT TO HELP THE INDIVIDUAL BY LAW. I recently got trained with First Aid and Red Cross now makes it so you know how to help with seizures too, and the first thing you do when you’re trained is say “hi. My name is (name) and I am able to help, is that all right?” Do not leave the persons side until further help is received in the clear.

[witchy-woman]

My brother is epileptic and this is IMPORTANT. Please give this a read!!

[j42echo-blog]

All of this is important for people to know-I have intractable (uncontrolled) epilepsy & I really really worry when my mom is not literally by my side if we go anywhere. Please understand that after a seizure someone might not know what's going on & their behavior might seem really abnormal to you - it doesn't mean we're crazy. Please don't do anything to try to stop someone from biting their tongue - this is going to happen, it sucks & I assume it looks very bad to you but you could have your own fingers injured thinking you can stop it. And if someone has medical ID on them, there may be a number of a family member/caretaker who may be nearby on it - don't hesitate to call. If it indicates they have epilepsy, an ambulance probably is not necessary & they may have "rescue" medication on them if they have gone into "status epilepticus" before. (I will add, since I have experienced this: If a seizure is lasting more than 5 minutes & continues or if a person has these long seizures one right after another & you can't get ahold of their caretaker, although unlikely: Call for paramedics. This can cause lasting damage & even some small local hospitals need to life flight us. We really need professional medical care when this happens. Don't panic knowing this can happen though: It's not to be expected with many seizures.) And for the love of god, don't think you can make us "snap out of it" by treating it as if we've fainted.

[from-the-sands-deactivated20210]

[orcacharm]

So while I was looking through the Southern Resident Killer Whale family tree, I realized you can see very clear gaps where calves should have been born in the 60′s. Obviously these gaps were caused by the captures but for some reason being able to clearly see which mothers most likely had calves taken from them hit me really hard, so I compiled a list of the female orcas that had gaps in their family tree and a little bit about their family 

J pod 

J2 Granny (No 100% known calves, likely had them though)

J5 Saratoga (Mother of J17 Princess Angeline, aunt of J22 Oreo)

J7 Sucia (Original matriarch of the J16s) 

J8 Spieden (No recorded calves, likely taken in the captures)

J12 Sissy (Potentially lost 2 calves, one being J24. Mother of J14 Samish)

K pod

K4 Morgan (Mother of K12 Sequim, her only recorded calf) 

K8 Tumwater (Original matriarch of the K14s)

K11 Georgia (Mother of K13 Skagit, her only recorded calf)

K18 Kiska (Mother of K21 Cappuccino, the only member left of her pod) 

 L pod

L3 Oreana (Grandmother of L84 Nyssa, the only member left of her pod)

L4 Sonar (Had 12 grandkids from her 4 recorded calves)

L9 Hopi (Mother of L3 Oreana)

L12 Alexis (Grandmother of L41 Mega)

L21 Ankh (Original matriarch of the L47s) 

L25 Ocean Sun (Potentially lost 2 calves, one being Lolita. Only member left)

L28 Misky (Mother of L85 Mystery, the only member left of her pod)

L35 Victoria (Mother of L54 Ino, very likely lost 1 or more calves to captivity)

L37 Kimo (Grandmother of L72 Racer, likely lost a calf in the Penn Cove captures)

We know for sure that 26 young members of the SRKW population were taken as well as others that it is unsure whether they were SRKWs. Around 13 known SRKWs died in the captures including mothers trying to get to their calves. It is very evident in K pod that mothers died during the captures as there were very few breeding females at the time that the study of the SRKWs started, yet there were quite a few members of K pod taken into captivity. 

[j42echo-blog]

Very interesting.

[missmariemariana]

Iceberg the orca

Photos by Far East Russia Orca Project

sources: x, x, x

[orcas-of-the-strait-deactivated]

053 & 059

053 (First picture) a 3 years old baby, playing with new little cousin 059 (last picture) who was born in 2014//2015 Cute! Credits go to Manu Esteve Please help Manu Esteve, (marine biologist) find sponsors to finish a 27 minutes movie about the orcas from the Strait of Gibraltar, who have the tradition of taking the bluefin tuna from the fishing lines. Don’t repost/use without permission

[gentlesharks]

This stingray may be hidden beneath the sand, but it cannot hide from the incredible hunting senses of the Great Hammerhead shark. The shark waits for each sense to be triggered; hearing, smell, sight, electroreception, and touch. As the ray bolts from cover, the shark takes chase and uses its ‘hammer’ to pin the ray down to the sea floor, trying to get a good bite. The Hammerhead locks on to the wing to immobilize its prey and finish its meal.

[chaoflaka]

People tell me hammerheads arent so dangerous. I’m gonna prove this to them that they’re wrong. 

[sharkhugger]

Hams are only dangerous to flap flaps.  Tasty tasty flap flaps!

[whaletalesorg]

Whale Tales just posted it’s 200th story and that has us jumping for joy! To read all our amazing #whaletales or to submit your own, follow the link in our bio! Photo by @vitalocean #killerwhale #orca #whales #getonaboat #whalewatching #storytelling #stories

[j42echo-blog]

I love this picture.

[whaletalesorg]

Hey Storytellers! In the mood to look at some amazing whale pics? Head over to our facebook page and check them all out! Photo: L87 “Onyx” by @gary_j27 #whaletales #killerwhale #orca #SRKW #whales #getonaboat #exporebc #whalewatching #photos #stories

[orca-friend]

IS HE GETTING A RUFFLED FIN?!?!?!

[orcacharm]

J26 Mike with J2 Granny 2007 by andrew crazybrit

[j42echo-blog]

Today’s Random Orca Thought

When I was little I thought killer whales’ eyepatches WERE their eyes & I was seriously so upset when I found out they weren’t. I had really bad eyesight but I didn’t have glasses yet so I just never saw actual eyes & when my mom showed me a picture I cried & then got mad at all my orca toys that didn’t have eyes because THEY LIED TO ME. Something about really big white eyes with no pupils was just awesome to me. 

[blackfishsound]

Photo by Blue Ocean Whale Watch:

Find the killer whale! Our 7:00am private charter saw 5 transient (Bigg’s) killer whales including this extremely playful juvenile poking her head through a kelp paddy.

[porpoise-princess-deactivated20]

When I first saw this photo all I could think of was @thelonelywhale‘s drawing: 

[thelonelywhale]

OH MY GOD YES THANK YOU LMFAO

Little Comet in kelp is a gift.

[porpoise-princess-deactivated20]

Photo of Polaris taken today by Monika Wieland: 

We just got back from spending over an hour with the J17 matriline at San Juan County Land Bank’s Westside Preserve. The good news is everybody was there, including J28 Polaris. The bad news is she still looks really underweight - notice all the depressions around her head. She did seem to be actively foraging with her daughter J46 Star and son J54. This gal’s a fighter - finger’s crossed she finds a way to pull through.