orca obsessed

This incredible little guy is deep in my thoughts tonight! We love you J39 Mako! 💙💜💖 Photo by @hysazu

There are some truly incredible photographers here on Instagram and Facebook, but I just wanted to give a shoutout to one of my favorites. @hysazu, your photos inspire me every day I see them. Captured with such love and honor, I feel almost as if I'm getting to know these whales through your film. You managed to catch the most adorable behaviors from these wild beauties and I so idolize you! Thank you eternally for sharing your talent with all of us! 💙 And in honor of the Southern Residents, I'd like to ask all of you to call the White House and ask President Obama to breach the Snake River Dams. (202-456-6213) You can call at any time of the day and all you need to say is "Breach the Snake River dams so that the endangered Southern Resident orcas won't be damned!" There is a recorded line, so even if you leave a message, it WILL be heard! Help us save these majestic creatures from extinction and let's put Chinook salmon back on their menu!! Photo taken by the lovely @hysazu

One of our favorite Southern Residents, J39 Mako, the 12 year old brother of J27 Blackberry, was very recently photographed with a salmon lure dangling out of his mouth. In this photo, it is believed that he was attempting to swallow the lure. It's currently unknown whether or not the fishing equipment has been embedded into part of Mako's external body, esophagus, or worse, his stomach/intestines. The lure was likely attached to a salmon that Mako hunted in the recent past, and it is possible that Mako was chasing it while it was being reeled in by a fisherman. He could've easily snapped the fishing line, taking both the salmon and the lure. Officials from NOAA and the DFO are monitoring the situation but are unsure of what will be the best course of action to follow. Perhaps the lure is not actually deeply implanted in Mako's body and will simply fall out or be passed through naturally. However, if the lure proves to be stuck, infection and further complications are feared. Capturing this young male would be difficult and stressful to both him and the pod members he is travelling with. NOAA and DFO members are supposedly venturing out to find Mako at this time to further assess the situation. Updates will be made. In the meantime, please keep this juvenile in your thoughts and hope for the best; there is not much else that can be done. ~ Photography by Barbara Bender Original post by @wildforwhales

Just a few days ago, Heather of @natures_keeper_photography snapped these incredible photos of K12 Sequim breaching in the San Juan Islands. There are a few rumors circulating that the 43-year-old female may very well be pregnant. Either that, or she is plump and full of chinook salmon! K12 Sequim, estimated to have been born in 1972, was named after a Makah native village located on the Olympic Peninsula. She has three living offspring, K22 Sekiu, K37 Rainshadow and K43 Saturna. If she is indeed pregnant, and safely delivers a healthy calf, it will be the first orca calf born into K-pod since 2011.

wildorcinusAt least ten distinct ecotypes of killer whales have been recognized by scientists. There are evidently more than just these species that populate Earth's water bodies, but we still have much to learn of them. This is a display of the five Antarctic species and one subspecies of orca. Males are on the left and females on the right. 1. Type A 2. Large type B (Pack ice) 3. Small type B (Gerlache) 4. Type C (Ross Sea) 5. Type D Photo: NOAA

Not only has the youngest member of L Pod recently been seen, but so has the oldest! #L25 #OceanSun is estimated to be 87 years old. While she has outlived all but one of her children (the captive orca Lolita), she still finds company in the L12s, consisting of L41 Mega, his sisters L77 Matia and L94 Calypso and their offspring L113 Cousteau, L119 Joy and L121. It makes me feel very hopeful for baby L121's future. He or she has a surrogate grandma with many tales to tell and lessons to teach. Photo of L25 by Andrew Reding Post written by my lovely friend Kaylyn of @loveroforcas 💙

Fun fact about one of our favorite Loro Parque/SeaWorld orcas: Kohana was originally named Makea, or had been "otherwise known as", according to the marine mammal inventory reports of 2011! Obviously her name was changed/chosen to be Kohana, but I thought that was interesting! And another fun fact, Kohana's original name, Makea, when rearranged, spells Kamea, which is the name of Kohana's youngest sister! Kamea currently lives at SeaWorld San Antonio with her mother Takara and her older sister, Sakari. Photo by Terry Hardie

One of my most favorite photos of not-so-little J49 T'ilem I'nges sneaking between mom J37 Hy'shqa as baby J51 swims in her slipstream! Photo by @hysazu 💙

I'm currently working on breaking down and reviewing each chapter of Beneath The Surface and compiling them into some posts for you guys! I've already read the book, but it was such an awesome read and I learned a lot, so I want you all to have that chance, too, because I know that not everyone has access to it! Photo of L87 Onyx. Photographer currently unknown, but if you know, tell me and I'll edit in a credit to that person! 💙

Our big lovable Keiko 💙

Absolutely incredible shot of an Lpod orca reverse tail slapping! This amazing photo was taken by the lovely and talented @natures_keeper_photography today while she was out on the water in the Puget Sound! Please give her photography account a follow to see more breathtaking photos of our favorite Southern Resident killer whales!

L92 Crewser doing a cartwheel! Crewser is the only surviving offspring of L60 Rascal. In May of 2002, Rascal washed ashore in Oregon. Her death was quite mysterious, as she was only 30 years old at the time. Photo by @taslishaw

I can't get over this awesome eyepatch! Does anyone have any idea who this orca might be? Photo by Dave Harvey

SeaWorld's troubles persist as evidenced by its fourth quarter earnings released Thursday. Attendance and revenue continued to drop, and SeaWorld suffered a net loss of $25.4 million for the last quarter of 2014. And it's been another very lousy week for SeaWorld. A beluga whale died after a fight in a tank and SeaWorld Orlando was forced to announce the end of a controversial program that allowed visitors to feed dolphins by hand unsupervised. And none of the new numbers give the troubled company reason to hope for a turnaround. SeaWorld's revenue in Q4 was $264.5 million — a decrease of $7.4 million, or 3 percent, compared to the same period in 2013. Total revenue for 2014 was down 6 percent from 2013. Attendance also took a hit — down by 2.2 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2013. The Q4 results continue a downward slide for the company. Article by TheDodo.com Photo of Norwegian orcas taken by Paul Nicklen

I think this mama has the most amazing open saddle patch I've ever seen. I can recognize her in a heartbeat! Photo by Nick Lake

One of the most intriguing stories that has developed over the last couple of years is that of L87 Onyx. Onyx is a male that was born in 1992 to L32 Olympia. Olympia passed away in 2005, and often when a whale loses its mother, it will often associate with its closest remaining family members. In Onyx's case, we would have expected this to be his sister (L22 Spirit), nephews (L79 Skana and L89 Solstice), or cousin (L85 Mystery). Instead, since the death of his mother, Onyx has been traveling with K-Pod. We occasionally see whales travel temporarily with other pods, but as far as we know, Onyx has been with K-Pod since 2005. Specifically, he latched onto older females K7 Lummi and K11 Georgia. For the first couple years he was seen almost exclusively with them, and after Lummi died in 2007/2008, he stayed with Georgia. Over time, he has started associating with other K-Pod whales as well. Never in the last 40 years of observations has their been a documented case of a whale "switching pods". Even L7 Canuck and L53 Lulu, who for the last couple of seasons have spent the entire summer with J-Pod, switch back to L-Pod for the winter months. Onyx doesn't do this: he is with K-Pod all year round. This makes Onyx somewhat of an enigma. He has surviving female family members, but instead has chosen to associate with an older female in an entirely different pod. It begs the question: what was the relationship between Onyx's mom Olympia and his surrogate mom Georgia? Based on Alexandra Morton's theory, Onyx must have met Georgia through Olympia, and the connection must have been strong enough to "overrule" his relationships with his more immediate family. Photo by Rachel Griffin

It's so hard to choose one orca out of J-pod to love, but today, it's this pretty mama, J22 Oreo! Oreo is mother to J34 Doublestuf and J38 Cookie, and was the adoptive mother of J32 Rhapsody after her mother and uncle passed away when she was only 3 years old.