If I Were Going...: Alaska #15: Kenai Fjords Orcas

A baby Orca!

I already gave you a good rundown of Kenai Fjords National Park and our tour out to the Aialik Glacier. Everything about the tour was great, especially the fabulous calving glacier. But, an extra special treat was the number of Orcas we encountered. All together, we saw about 30 – and several of them were babies.

The first time I saw Orcas was in about the exact same spot almost 30 years ago on my second trip to Alaska. It was a business trip and Teresa Keenan and I took a little bit of extra time to visit Kenai Fjords.

Kenai Fjords National Park

As we passed through the open water part of the cruise, a pod of Orcas approached our boat and actually circled around us. They seemed very curious, looking at us as they approached, some even spy-hopping.

I had been having intermittent problems with the (very poor) camera I had back then and it decided to freeze up right after I took my first shots of the pod. It never really worked again.

At first, I was distraught, but I took a deep breath and decided that I should forget about the camera and enjoy the Orcas. Teresa told me that the broken camera was a sign that I would return to Alaska again. And, was she right! This was my tenth trip.

So, let’s talk about Orcas.

An Orca skims the surface

The Orca, or Killer Whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the dolphin family. Orcas can be found all the world's oceans except the Baltic and Black Seas.

The name Orca comes from the genus name Orcinus, which means "of the kingdom of the dead.” So, it has a similar meaning as the traditional name, "Killer Whale."

As frightening as it sounds, “Killer Whale” probably does not have anything to do with threats to humans. It may come from the 18th century Spanish name, Asesina-Ballenas, or “Killer of Whales,” coined by Basque whalers after watching Orcas hunting whales.

Black back, white belly, gray saddle

A typical Orca has a black back, white belly and sides and a white patch above and behind the eye. They have a heavy and robust body with a large dorsal fin up to six feet tall. Behind the fin, Orcas have a dark grey "saddle patch" on the back.

Orcas have powerful jaws and strong teeth that mesh together when the Orca closes its mouth.

Male Orcas typically range from 20 to 26 feet long and weigh in excess of 6 tons. Females are smaller, ranging from 16 to 23 feet and weighing about 3 to 4 tons. Calves weigh about 400 lbs. and are seven or more feet long at birth. They are among the fastest marine mammals, able to reach speeds in excess of 35 mph.

A distant male Orca

Orca pectoral fins are large and rounded, resembling paddles; males' are much larger than female's.

Males's dorsal fins are more than twice the size of females' and look like tall, elongated triangles. Females' are shorter and more curved.

Most of the Orcas we saw were female.

Like most marine mammals, Orcas have a layer of insulating blubber ranging from three to four inches beneath the skin.

This scar is really noticeable

An individual Orca can often be identified through variations such as nicks, scratches and tears on the dorsal fin and the pattern of white or grey in the saddle patch.

Photographic identification enables scientists to count local populations each year rather than estimate, providing great insight into lifecycles and social structures.

Orcas have good eyesight above and below the water, excellent hearing and a good sense of touch.

Orcas have exceptionally sophisticated echolocation abilities, detecting the location and characteristics of prey and other objects in the water by emitting clicks and listening for echoes.

The three primary Orca types are Resident, Transient and Offshore. They may be distinct enough to be considered different races, subspecies or even species.

Circling Orcas

Resident Orcas primarily eat fish and squid and live in complex and cohesive pods. Female residents characteristically have rounded dorsal fin tips that terminate in a sharp corner. They visit the same areas consistently and are common in British Columbia, Washington and Alaska.

Orcas breathe through a blowhole

Transient Orcas almost exclusively eat marine mammals and birds. They travel in small groups, usually two to six, and have weaker family bonds than Resident Orcas. They primarily eat Seals and Sea Lions, but also may attack Sharks, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whale calves and even adult Whales.

In the Southern Hemisphere, they eat Penguins.

Kenai Fjords has both Resident and Transient Orcas. Based on the size of the pod, I think these were Resident.

Transients vocalize in less variable and less complex dialects than Residents. Female Transients are characterized by more triangular and pointed dorsal fins than those of Residents. The saddle patch often contains some black in Residents, while the saddle patches of Transients are solid and uniformly gray.

This group of three swam in unison

Transients roam widely along the coast; some individuals have been sighted in both southern Alaska and California.

The only Orca fluke I saw

Offshore Orcas were discovered 30 years ago in the northeast Pacific. They travel far from shore and feed primarily on schooling fish, but also eat mammals and sharks.

They have mostly been encountered off the west coast of Vancouver Island and near Haida Gwaii.

Offshores typically congregate in groups of 20-75, with occasional sightings of larger groups of up to 200. They appear to be smaller than the Residents and Transients and females are characterized by continuously rounded dorsal fin tips.

Transients and Residents live in the same areas but avoid each other. And, recent studies have shown that, while they each have a preferred diet (either fish or mammals), they will switch under certain conditions, such as scarcity of preferred food or over-abundance of less preferred food.

The dorsal fin of a departing Orca

Orcas are apex predators, with no natural enemies.

The lifespans of wild females average 50 years, but they may live substantially longer – perhaps even to 100. Males typically live only 30 years, with a maximum of 60.

Baby Orca

To avoid inbreeding, males mate with females from other pods.

After a 15-18-month gestation, females deliver a single calf, usually one about every five years.

Births can occur at any time of year, but winter is most common.

Up to half of all calves die during the first seven months, often from predation.

Weaning begins at about one year and is complete by two.

Male and female pod members participate in the care of the young. However, it is not unheard of for a male to kill a calf in order to mate with its mother. In some cases, the male’s mother even participates in infanticide in support of her son. Talk about mother-in-law problems!

Worldwide Orca population estimates include 25,000 in the Antarctic, 8,500 in the tropical Pacific, 2,250-2,700 off the cooler northeast Pacific, 500-1,500 off Norway and 2,300 in the seas around Japan. Recently, Orcas have appeared in South Africa, where they have been killing and feeding on resident Great White Sharks. And, more and more are being seen along the coast of California.

Orcas stay close to each other

Resident Orcas live with their mothers for their entire lives.

“Matriline” family groups comprise the eldest female (matriarch) and her sons and daughters and the descendants of her daughters up to as many as four generations.

Matriline members separate for only a few hours at a time to mate or forage.

Closely related matrilines, usually no more than four groups, form loose aggregations called pods. Unlike matrilines, pods may separate for weeks or months at a time.

Orcas’ sophisticated hunting techniques and vocalizations are often specific to a particular pod and are passed across generations.

The next social level, clans, comprise pods with similar dialects and common but older maternal heritage. Clan ranges overlap, mingling pods from different clans. The final association layer is called the community and is defined as a set of clans that regularly commingle. The pod, the clan, the community -- it sounds a bit like society in a futuristic dystopian novel.

The youngsters gave us quite a show

Transient pods are smaller than Resident pods, typically consisting of an adult female and one or two of her offspring. Males typically, but not always, maintain strong lifetime relationships with their mothers. Unlike Residents, however, Transients often separate and some males never permanently join a group, instead becoming "rovers" that temporarily join pods with reproductive females.

Two Orcas swim across the bay

Orca behavior includes of foraging, traveling, resting and socializing, which includes surface behaviors as breaching, spy-hopping and tail-slapping.

Although scientists don't know why Orcas do these things, they surmise that they have a variety of purposes, such as courtship, communication, navigation, dislodging parasites or play.

Like all cetaceans, Orcas use sounds, including clicks, whistles and pulsed calls, to assist with orientation and feeding and communicate with other Orcas.

Resident groups tend to be much more vocal than Transients because the fish Residents prey on is insensitive to Orca calls. In contrast, because the marine mammals hear well underwater, Transient Orcas tend to hunt silently.

Orcas, which have the second-heaviest brains among marine mammals after Sperm Whales, are quite intelligent. They imitate others and teach skills to their kin.

Some local Orca populations are considered threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution, capture for marine mammal parks and conflicts with human fisheries. In late 2005, the southern resident Orcas in British Columbia and Washington were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.

The Alaskan waters are clear enough to see the Orcas underwater

Haida Orca art

Indigenous peoples of the coastal Pacific Northwest feature Orcas in art, history, spirituality and religion.

The Haida regarded Orcas as the most powerful animals in the ocean, and their mythology tells of Orcas living in houses and towns under the sea. According to these myths, they took on human form when submerged, and humans who drowned went to live with them.

The Tlingit regarded the Orca as custodian of the sea and a benefactor of humans.

The Orca’s intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness in captivity and size have made them popular at aquariums and aquatic theme parks. From 1976 to 1997, 55 whales were taken from the wild in Iceland, 19 from Japan and three from Argentina. Reacting to changing public opinion. live captures fell dramatically in the 1990s, and by 1999, about 40 percent of the 48 animals on display in the world were captive-born. Now, most aquariums have even halted captive breeding.

Captivity differs dramatically from the wild environment.

Captives have droopy dorsals

Enclosures provide a fraction of the space normally occupied by Orcas.

Separation from family members affects social structure,

The requirement to perform tricks are not part of wild Orca behavior.

Captives often develop health issues, such as the dorsal fin collapse seen in 60-90 percent of captive males, and life expectancies are about half or less of those in the wild.

Although I will admit I have seen Orcas at SeaWorld in the past, I have changed my views and believe that the only time it would be appropriate to hold an Orca would be for disease or injury rehabilitation.

Orcas are not generally considered a threat to humans. Of the very few confirmed attacks on humans by wild Orcas, none have been fatal. In one instance, Orcas tried to tip ice floes on which a dog team and photographer of the Terra Nova Expedition were standing, possibly because the barking dogs sounded like seals. In the 1970s, a surfer in California was bitten, and in 2005, a boy in Alaska who was splashing in a region frequented by Harbor Seals was bumped by an Orca that may have misidentified him as prey.

Swimming Orcas

On the other hand, stressed captives often act aggressively towards themselves, their tankmates or humans. Between 1991 and 2010, the male Orca known as Tilikum (that's him with the droopy dorsal fin above) was involved in the death of three people, and was featured in the critically acclaimed 2013 film, "Blackfish." Tilikum lived at SeaWorld from 1992 until his death in 2017.

That’s a lot of info – mainly stolen from Wikipedia – but I thought it was interesting. The Orcas we saw were not feeding; rather, they were spread rather far apart and swimming rapidly in the same direction, occasionally turning and swimming directly toward our boat and then away.

Orcas were a popular photo subject

I noticed that, to keep up, the calves had to bring their bodies almost all the way out of the water while their adult companions just skimmed below the surface, seldom showing much more than their backs, dorsal fins and blowholes. That was how I was able to get such great baby pictures.

Three swimming together

After we watched the Orcas for a lot longer than the trip usually allots for wildlife viewing (I think the captain was an Orca junkie), we took a brief spin by a steep rocky island where a number of Steller Sea Lions had hauled out and were sunning themselves.

Steller Sea Lions hauled out on the rocks

The island also appeared to have a big seabird population – it is probably a rookery during the nesting season. Lots of Black-Legged Kittiwakes ...

Kittiwake

... and Tufted Puffins were rapidly – and I do mean rapidly – flying everywhere. Try as I might, it was hard to capture any of these speedy birds.

Horned Puffin

On the trip, we also saw one Bald Eagle that flew over just as we were boarding the boat and a number of seabirds, including Pelagic Cormorants and Common Murres.