Wild Orca News

Sadly, yet another 2016 death for the Southern Resident killer whales: the famous J2 "Granny" has not been seen since October and is presumed dead by the Center for Whale Research. Her exact age was never known, though she was certainly a very old animal, having been spotted as an adult in 1976. I hope the other members of J pod don't have too hard of a time with her gone...

Center for Whale Research
 
Sadly, yet another 2016 death for the Southern Resident killer whales: the famous J2 "Granny" has not been seen since October and is presumed dead by the Center for Whale Research. Her exact age was never known, though she was certainly a very old animal, having been spotted as an adult in 1976. I hope the other members of J pod don't have too hard of a time with her gone...

Center for Whale Research

I wish she had washed up somewhere so that we could have found out how old she really was.
 
A mother orca’s dead calf and the grief felt around the world

It has been nine days and she continues to carry her dead calf around...

NOAA plans ‘outside the box’ response to save J pod orca, which may have just days to live

Researchers want to capture J50 (Scarlet) and nurse her back to health. Interesting idea but I'll be surprised if it goes through. Usually it takes a while for plans like that to get approved, and by then it might be too late... Also, they compare it with Springer, but Springer was orphaned and away from her pod. Taking a young orca from her pod will be more difficult, not to mention it would stress out her pod and her. Still, if it could save her life, I can't oppose it. She'll die without intervention, probably worth the risk...
 
A lady out for a swim in Hahei, New Zealand, was joined by some Orcas:
Drone captures video of a woman surrounded by orca as she swims off Hahei beach

The link below is for the full drone footage on Youtube (the news video in the first link above shows chopped-up snippets).



I reckon the big mummy Orca is teaching her kids how to hunt, and is saying to them "now this is a human - it looks kind of like a seal but we don't hunt them because they are smart like us".
 
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This is one of the most amazing videos that I've seen at Zoochat ever! Dangerous situation, but super beautiful at same time! I wonder what has been the swimmer reaction and feelings - she don't looks enough scared for swim to the shore. I would be terrified if I find myself in this situation, swimming with wild orcas whose personality is unknown for me (even captive ones can be unpredictable in occasions).
 
I wonder what has been the swimmer reaction and feelings - she don't looks enough scared for swim to the shore.
She thought it was fantastic (the first link in my post above is the news story but the news video is below):




Here's another video from New Zealand earlier this year with Orcas and kids (the viewers were scared but the kids didn't even know the Killer Whales were there until they swam past them):

 
Two males have been spotted near Virginia Beach, Virginia! I've never heard of them coming this far south, or anywhere south of Long Island.
 
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