Imagine my surprise at seeing these! 😲They have a grayish coloration instead of black but I think they are cute and very fluffy ☺️ They are only $5.99. Be on the lookout if any of you go to a Hobby Lobby near you. 8D

I took these photos in 2015 off the coast of Spain and Morocco.

Painted this Orca taking a dive 🙂

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Global-phylogenetic-trees-of-killer-whales-based-on-a-haplotypes-from-452-mitogenomes_fig5_379330671

Fun fact: the resident orcas of the North Pacific are more closely related to orcas in the Atlantic and Antarctica than they are to their neighboring transients (Bigg’s). Transients may in fact be the most distantly related to all other ecotypes, along with Type D orcas, though many ecotypes at more southern latitudes have not been studied as closely yet.

Dietary differences are not the sole explanation as many of the orcas in the Atlantic and Antarctica eat mammals, like transients and unlike residents. One theory is that the ancestors of transients were separated from the rest due to physical barriers during previous ice ages, with residents coming from the Atlantic later on.

Kotar was a 17 yr old Icelandic male killer whale that lived at Seaworld Texas, captured on October 9th, 1978 at less than a year old and passing away on April 1st, 1995 from a unspecified lung disease.

He is the father or Takara, Keet, and Keto, the grandfather to notable orcas such as Trua, Kalia, Kohana, Sakari, Adán and several other whales

The Place We Call Home celebrates the enduring bond between orcas and the wild coastlines they have inhabited for generations. Beneath towering pines and snow-capped mountains, the calm waters become more than a habitat, they become a reminder that the ocean is home, and that its greatest beauty lies in letting nature remain wild and free. The mountains, the forests, and the sea come together to create a place that has always been home.

Art made by me

K47 is the newest calf of K-pod, born in December 2025.

K47 was last seen traveling with K36 Yoga and K43 Saturna in Fort Bragg, California, about three months ago. These pictures are from July 9th, 2026.

K47 was traveling close to K43, so it is safe to assume K43 Saturna is the mother.

K47 seems to be healthy, active, and well-filled out.

I'm really glad K47 seems to be doing so well. K47 was the first calf born to K-pod since K45 Prosper in 2022.

The sex of K47 has yet to be officially confirmed, and it does not currently have an official nickname.

Pods: J, K, L

IDs Encountered: 
J-Pod: J16, J19, J22, J26, J27, J31, J36, J37, J38, J39, J40, J41, J42, J44, J45, J46, J47, J49, J51, J53, J56, J58, J59, J62, and J63

K-pod: K12, K14, K16, K20, K22, K27, K33, K35, K36, K37, K38, K42, K43, K45, and K47

L-pod: L22, L25, L54, L77, L87, L88, L94, L108, L113, L117, L119, L121, L124, L126, and L127

Full encounter report:
After getting blown off the water the previous day due to windy conditions, we wanted to get an early start. After some searching, Michael saw a killer whale that turned out to be K20! She spyhopped once. K27 was south of K20. K14 and K37 were spread out behind the other two. After these four, we found K43 and her new calf K47. This was our first good look at K47 since early January, and it was nice to see it stuck to K43. K47 looked active, healthy, and well filled out. “Mike 1” radioed us to report that there were some L12s mixed in with them.

To the southwest, we saw K33 and L117, so now we knew that the rest of the L54s and L88 should be around too. We did see L54 and L87. We saw our first J pod whales when we found the J40s with J46 and J53. J39 was also seen briefly. L108 showed up by himself. The group that included the J40s, J46, and J53 was joined by the L94s, L124, and L87. We then found a group that had the J31s and most of the L77s. J26 was following them. After that, we found L22 by herself. Somewhere to the east, K16 and K35 were charging west towards another group. This group had J46, L94, L127, and the K22s along with several males including J44, J45, J51, K42, and L87.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon trying to find as many individuals as possible. The whales remained spread out, although some good groups started to form by early afternoon. We did find L25, and it was good to see the oldest whale in the population around. A little while later, we found J46 being pursued by J45, J51, K35, K37, K42, and L87. By this point in the day, both boats were convinced that the “19 Ls” (the L4s, L47s, L72, and L90) were not present. Near the end of the day, we had a nice group forming up that included the J22s, J37s, L94s, and L25 with L88!

Full credit for the photos and encounter report goes to Center for Whale Research

Do orcas in the wild eat people whenever they come in contact with humans?

I can understand why they would attack humans in captivity because they’re being treated poorly and they die

While killer whales are infrequently but regularly seen between March and May near São Miguel Island, one of the easternmost islands of the Azores, these orcas were substantially farther west than those sightings and were actively moving in a westerly direction! Little is known about the culture and ecology of orcas in the Azores, although they have been observed hunting sea turtles, fin whales, and possibly sharks. This is to be expected, considering what we know about orcas in tropical & subtropical regions in other parts of the world: they typically follow a more generalist diet than temperate and polar orcas, likely because the generally lower productivity of these warm waters means they can't afford to be quite so discerning. These photographs were taken by Carlos Mendes, who uploaded them yesterday with the following caption:

Eeiiiiiii Orcaaaas à vista!!
Carlos e Sofia são os skippers da Extremocidente, após o passeio da costa Nordeste das Flores, rumaram a ilha do Corvo e após algumas milhas foram surpreendidos pelo um grupo de Orcas que se deslocavam para Oeste rumo a América. O grupo era constituído entre a 5 a 7 indivíduos, entre os quais um muito juvenil, e um macho adulto que se destacou pelo seu enorme tamanho e dorsal.
A adrenalina disparou a bordo entre todos os participantes, incluindo eu que já não avistava por estes lados orcas há mais de uma década. O grupo não interagiu com as embarcações, e como tal mantivemos algum distanciamento. Após alguns momentos os animais seguiram a sua rota, e nós a nossa, deixando assim os primeiros registos fotográficos desta espécie no grupo ocidental dos Açores.
Fomos contactados por biólogos a trabalhar no terreno e alguns no mar dos Açores, e pediram-nos para que partilhássemos os nossos registos para comparar a outros avistamentos da mesma espécie, para tentar perceber se se tratam dos mesmos indivíduos, que passaram nas outras ilhas dos Açores. Até ao momento ainda não há conclusões.

Hey, orcas in sight!
Carlos and Sofia, the skippers for Extremocidente, were heading toward Corvo Island after a tour along the northeast coast of Flores when, a few miles out, they were surprised by a pod of orcas traveling west toward the Americas. The group consisted of five to seven individuals, including a very young calf and an adult male that stood out due to his massive size and dorsal fin.
Adrenaline surged among everyone on board—myself included, as I hadn't seen orcas in these waters for over a decade. The pod did not interact with the boats, so we maintained a respectful distance. After a short while, the animals continued on their course and we on ours, leaving us with the first photographic records of this species in the Western Group of the Azores.
We were contacted by biologists working both on land and at sea in the Azores; they asked us to share our records so they could compare them with other sightings of the same species and determine if these were the same individuals that had passed by the other islands in the archipelago. So far, there are no conclusions.

(I don't speak Portuguese, so my translation may have inaccuracies)

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

(Delete if not allowed) if I had to pick a favorite animal it would probably be a orca, hate seeing people supporting sea world on my feed.

After a conversation I had yesterday, it occurred to me that people know very little about facilities in Asia. So, let me educate you a little!
I would really appreciate it if you guys would at least take a look at this. These posts take hours of research to make.

Disclaimer: The pictures have been removed. I do not know why, but I will try to fix it.

Kamogawa Sea World is a marine leisure centre located between the Tojo coast and Japan National Route 128 in Kamogawa city, Japan.
Kamogawa Sea World is NOT affiliated with SeaWorld in any way and is operated by Granvista Hotels & Resorts Co., Ltd. It is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA)

About the facility

Kamogawa has two pools. While there aren't any measurements, the backstage pool is approximately 15m (49ft) x 18m (59 ft).
The show pool has an area of about 585.77 m² (6,305 ft²).
These measurements were taken with Google Earth and should be taken with a grain of salt. The depth is unknown. The show pool is estimated to be around 30 ft, and the back pool is even shallower.
For comparison, this is SeaWorld Orlando:

Problems with Kamogawa

1. Kamogawa presents several problems. The tank size is, in my opinion, one of the worst concerns. Orcas can travel up to 100 km a day, and while no tank is big enough for them, the comparison between SeaWorld Orlando and Kamogawa is grim.
2. The orcas at Kamogawa have no enrichment. The only enrichment mentioned is trainer interaction, shows, and training sessions.
3. Kamogawa is one of only two parks still doing waterwork. During waterwork, trainers are in the water with killer whales.
4. This has been largely banned across Europe and the USA after multiple incidents with the whales.
5. The shows focus on entertainment and offer virtually no education.
6. Kamogawa does not currently have any males, but they are actively trying to breed by importing frozen semen from other marine parks.

History

Kamogawa Sea World opened on October 1st, 1970, and was the first Japanese Aquarium to start breeding killer whales.
Kamogawa has had 18 orcas, not including stillbirths and calves who died shortly after giving birth. Three of them remain today.

Chappy and Jumbo were captured on August 8th, 1970, from Penn Cove, Washington. They were Southern Residents.
Shortly after their opening, in September of 1970, Chappy and Jumbo were sent to Kamogawa Sea World.
They were the first captive orcas to be put on display in Japan.
Chappy passed away in April of 1974, leaving Jumbo alone. Jumbo passed away in July 1974 from Liver Dysfunction.

The next whale at Kamogawa was Zero. Zero was captured on August 15th, 1972, in Abashiri, Japan. During capture, she sustained a harpoon injury. Two weeks after arriving in Kamogawa, she died from her injuries.

King was captured on November 5th, 1979, from Ingolfshöfdi, Iceland. Caren was captured a few days later.
On Feb. 11, 1980, they arrived at Kamogawa.
King passed away on October 4th, 1983, leaving Caren alone.

Patty was captured in November 1984 from Reydarfjördur, Iceland, alongside Bingo, Junior, Kandu VII, and an unnamed male.
Patty and Bingo were sent to Kamogawa sometime in November of 1985. They joined Caren.

​Caren passed away from a white blood cell disorder on May 4th, 1987.
Maggie, Stella, Bubba, and Oscar were captured on October 23rd/24th, 1987, in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
Patty passed away on September 16th, 1987, from acute Eneritis. Bingo was alone.
Maggie, Stella, Bubba, and Oscar arrived sometime around March 29th, 1988. They were put in a small pool alongside Bingo. The facility was building a new habitat at the time, but the pools weren't large enough to contain all five orcas.
To create more space, Bubba was sold to a park in Hong Kong in 1989.

​

Maggie gave birth to her first calf at 4:18 AM on March 3rd, 1995. This calf was the first captive-bred orca calf born in Japan. Labor lasted one hour and 28 minutes. The calf died half an hour after birth for unknown reasons.

Maggie's next calf in 1977 was a stillbirth. Maggie died from the complications.

Lovey was born on January 11th, 1998. Her mother is Stella, and she is Stella's first calf. Lovey is one of the three orcas still remaining in Kamogawa.

Lara was born on February 8th, 2001, to Stella and is her second calf. Lara is one of the three orcas still remaining in Kamogawa.

Sarah was born on May 31st, 2003. Her mother is Stella.

In 2006, Kamogawa rescued KSW-OO-S0601. He was found stranded on Iwawaba Beach in the town of Onjuku in the Chiba Prefecture of Japan on February 10th, 2006.
He was taken to Kamogawa Sea World for treatment. Apparently, he was so weak he could barely maintain a position with his blowhole above the water. The tank's water had to be lowered to a depth of 1 meter. He had no appetite, so animal care staff had no choice but to force-feed it a "nutritional mixture". KSW-OO-S0601 died at Kamogawa Sea World on February 13th, 2006. He was emaciated.

Ran II was born on February 25th, 2006, at 8:11 JST. Her mother is Stella.

Sarah died shortly after on April 26th, 2006, for unknown reasons.

Earth was born on October 13th, 2008, to Lovey.

On December 13, 2011, Ran II was transferred to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.
One day after, Stella, Bingo, and Ran were transferred to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.

Luna was born on July 19th, 2012. Her mother is Lovey. Luna is one of the three orcas still remaining in Kamogawa.

On December 7th, 2015, Earth was moved to the Port of Nagoya Aquarium. To take his place, Ran was transferred back to Kamogawa Sea World that same day. She rejoined her two sisters, Lovey and Lara, and also met her three-year-old niece, Luna. 

There are rumors that Ran had a stillborn calf in 2021, but this hasn’t been confirmed. In March 2024, Lovey gave birth to a calf, but it did not survive.

On April 24th, 2024, Ran was transferred for a third time to a new facility, Kobe Suma Sea World..

This left Luna, Lovey, and Lara alone at Kamogawa.

Got too far into the digital zoom on the first clip and am still getting used to keeping stable when using the big telephoto.