Icelandic whales and ecotype
I’ve seen some claims going around that the Icelandic whales displayed in zoos and aquariums for the past several decades are actually two different ecotypes, with some being “North Atlantic type 1″ and a few others being “North Atlantic type 2″.
I think this is completely wrong, and will show you why.
Above are an assortment of ecotype infographics.
As you can see, “type 1″ are the typical whale you’ll find off Iceland and Norway. They eat mainly herring and other small fish (though some individuals have been observed taking seals), and males typically range from 6.2-6.6 meters, females, around 5.5 meters.
They have clear saddlepatches, and tend to have eyepatches like this:
As the closeup of the map image (last image in the collection above) shows, “type 1″ orcas are also in turn split into type A and B. Type “1A”, if you will, follow exactly the range of where Icelandic whales were caught, and along the Norwegian coast (this eyepatch collage is of both Icelandic and Norwegian whales).
As all the other ecotype infographics show, “type 1″ live off Iceland, Norway, with a couple pointing out that they may range as far south as Scotland and Ireland.
“Type 2″ on the other hand, is huge, one of the largest killer whales anywhere on Earth (after Antarctic type A). Males are 7.5-8.5 meters long, females 6.5-7 meters. They have distinctive downwards sloping eyepatches (like sad eyebrows, seen above), faint saddlepatches, are are very rarely seen, range around Britain, Ireland, the Faroes, and occasionally as far as Svalbard - not Iceland or Norway. They are mammal-eaters, specializing in minke whales as prey. Today, only a few of them remain.
The claim is then, that some of our Icelanders in human care are secretly, actually, type 2.
Let’s look at them. I have gathered all the whales caught in Iceland into a large collage, here split for ease of viewing. The only named whales I couldn’t get good enough images of were Canuck 2, Magnus and Benkei 2.
If the whale is still alive or died as an adult, I will provide measurements, if known.
I originally wrote descriptions for all the following whales, but it got tiring, repetitive, and too lengthy.
Kim, Gudrun, Kenau, Kandu 5, Hoi Wai, Kona 2, Winnie, Betty, Kahana, and Kasatka.
All of very typical “type 1″ looks.
Gudrun has no measurements available, but as can be seen when she lived at SeaWorld as a full-grown female, she was not large.
Kenau was caught with Gudrun. She was 5.5 meters long when she died at age 16.
Kandu 5. Interestingly, Orkid is the only whale in human care who has anything like the type 2 eyepatch, but she’s the daughter of Kandu who does not, and a Northern resident (Canadian) father who also did not. Kandu measured under 5.4 meters when she died.
Kona 2 was likely caught with Kandu 5, had enormous, distinct eyepatches, and she was 5.5 meters long at the time of death.
Winnie was caught with Hoi Wai as said, had a typical Icelandic eyepatch, and the same size and shape as other Icelandic females she lived with.
Betty was caught along with Katina, so they were likely pod mates.
Kahana was caught with Kasatka. She was particularly petite, measuring barely 5.1 meters when she died aged 15.
Kasatka was a mere 5.2 meters long, and looks nothing like a type 2 whale.
Kotar was 17-18 years old when he died, and measured 6.4 meters at the time of his death.
Katina is a typical, squat and stocky Icelandic whale with large eyepatches. She is just barely 5.5 meters long.
Caren was just 10-11 years old when she died, and measured 5 meters long.
Kiska was a larger female at 6 meters. Large for a type 1, but nowhere near the 6.5-7 meter type 2 females.
Keiko was an average-sized type 1 male at about 6.4 meters.
Ulises is another average-sized type 1 male, at 6.4 meters.
Bjossa is another I can find no measurements of, but she was much smaller than Corky, who is 6.1 meters (a Northern resident). She looks typical of an Icelandic whale if a bit long. Looking at the top middle whale of my eyepatch collage, that whale looks just like Bjossa.
Finna was caught along with Ulises, Bjossa and Vigga, his pod mates.
Vigga was another stocky and short female with large eyepatches, notably smaller than her 6 meter Northern resident companion.
Noni/Nootka was stocky and large female, at 6 meters, but with a bright saddle and eyepatches so commonly seen among Icelandic and Norwegian herring-eaters.
Freya was the only adult I could find who had a truly faint saddle patch (note that juveniles of all ecotypes tend to have faint saddles). She was also very long and slender compared to the typical, more stocky Icelandic female. She was however caught along with Kim 2 and Haida 2, and measured 6 meters in her late 20s. Her eyepatch is not type 2.
Haida 2 was, unlike her likely pod mate Freya, very typical in appearance for a type 1. She measured 5.2 meters at the age of 13.
Kim 2 was reportedly a large male, at 6.9 meters, just under Tilikum in size.
Nootka 4 (strange designation since she was caught one year after “Nootka 5″) was the same size as Haida.
Tilikum was the largest Icelandic killer whale in human care, reportedly at just under 7 meters, though I have also seen 6.7 meters (in 2016, shortly before his death). Even if he was 6.9 meters, that is indeed large for a type 1, but absolutely minute for a type 2, and he looks nothing like them.
Samoa was 5.15 meters long when she died, with a clear type 1 eyepatch and saddle patch.
Bingo had interesting triangular eyepatches and a black line in his saddle, and measured 6.5 meters in his early 30s.
Oscar was an unusually small male, measuring only 5.8 meters at the age of 26.
Stella is very small, only around 5.2 meters long.
Tanouk measured 6.4 meters in his teens (meaning he would grow larger for a few years).
So that’s all of them, except for Canuck 2, Magnus, and Benkei 2.
You can stop calling North Atlantic killer whales type 1 and type 2
“The main issue with type 2 killer whales came from the small sample size (5 individuals)”
“In the meantime, Dr. Foote suggested we just drop the “type 1/type 2” classification for now.”
There is simply no basis to think any of the above 45 whales from Iceland are or were the “type 2″ whales, like John Coe.
