Salmon Hats and Infanticide

A few interesting orca behaviors noted in my neck of the woods

Whether they are tearing apart sailboats off the Iberian coast or brutally murdering great white sharks on camera, orcas keeping grabbing international headlines. I live along the shore of Puget Sound and these tyrannosaurus dolphins—especially the three resident pods—are a part of our culture. Our orcas are arguably the most observed, documented, and formally studied on the planet. I’ve had my share of encounters in the waters from Oregon to Alaska.

Orca in Kenai Fjords National Park. Photo credit… me.

For whatever reason I found myself thinking about these mysterious critters a lot recently. Specifically, we of the Pacific Northwest have noted some very interesting behaviors. “Interesting” is a vague, neutral word choice of mine for a reason. These behaviors draw interest but are difficult to accurately interpret. Orca culture is as baffling to me as ours must be to them. But I thought I’d compile a few and muse. Make of them what you will.

Salmon Hats

Ranking on the top of the cutest interesting behavior is the local phenomenon of our resident orcas wearing dead salmon on their heads as hats. The fashion fad, first recorded in 1987, has reemerged this fall. From CNN:

Photographer Jim Pasola captured the image of J27 and his fish headgear on October 25 from Point No Point, a site on the tip of a peninsula in the Puget Sound. On October 29, the Orca Network shared the photo in its Whale Sighting Report email. A subcommunity of the orcas, known as J Pod, were hunting salmon in Puget Sound, and J27 swam at the surface with a salmon draped over the top of his head.

Why? The hope is that the orcas are enjoying a plentiful salmon season to feast upon. The resident orcas are fish eaters, unlike the transients who are mammal eaters. Interestingly, in Prince William Sound of Alaska, it’s reverse: the residents eat mammals, the transients eat fish.

We’ve seen a fantastic chum salmon run this year—the largest in 20 or so years. In fact, Hood Canal summer chum may be the first ever salmon removed from the Endangered Species List if this continues. There is a lot of dire salmon news out there, but when it comes to Puget Sound chum, we seem to be making progress.