Amazing animal - Orca/Killer Whale

Orca whales are amazing, intelligent creatures. They inspire me, and I want to write about them.

Orca Facts:
(facts quoted from Killer Whales by Charnan Simon and Ariel Kazunas)

Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacean
Family: Delphiniade
Genus: Orcinus
Species: Orcinus orca
World distribution: The most widely distributed animals; found in all oceans, from the Arctic to the Antarctic; most common in colder waters.
Habits: Highly social animals; live together in groups called pods; hunt cooperatively to capture prey; make a wide variety of communicative sounds.
Diet: Fish, squid, sharks, penguins, seals, sea lions, porpoises, and other marine animals, depending upon the location.

Killer whales are the largest members of the dolphin family. The average male weighs about 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) and is between 19 and 22 feet (5.8 and 6.7 meters) long. So a killer whale probably would not fit in your living room.

This is an orca compared to an average human.

"Orcas are highly intelligent, curious, and playful. Orca social groups are very complex. They graceful, amazing, killer whales are a favorite at marine parks and on boat tours." 

Fierce hunters:

"A killer whales large jaw is lined with as many as 56 sharp teeth. Some of their teeth can be as long as 4 inches (10 centimeters). Killer whales don't need to chew their food, they swallow it whole. A killer whales black-and-white coloring acts as a camouflage to help the whale sneak up on prey. For example, a seal lying on an ice floe will most likely not see a the orca because it blends with the dark water."

An extra sense:

"Orcas have very good eyesight. They can spot prey underwater and above the surface. But even with excellent eye-sight, orcas can only see so far underwater. They have an especially hard time seeing at night. So instead of using their eyes to see, they use their six sense, which is echolocation."

Growing Up in the Pod:

"Female orcas give birth to one calf at a time. A newborn orca weighs around 400 pounds (181 kg) and is about 8 feet (2.4 m) long. Right after the orca is born the mother pushes it to the surface of the water for it's first breath. As the calf grows, other members of the pod teach it hunting and swimming skills and play with it. An orca pod is basically a big group of sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. These family members all take care of each other."

                                                      A baby nuzzling with a mother.


Orcas are very loving and smart. In fact, they have a part of the brain that humans don't.
That brings me to a point that was a big inspiration for this post. Orca whales are captured to be put in big attraction parks like SeaWorld, Loro Parque, MarineLand, and A LOT more. Mother orcas scream and cry as their babies are taken away from them. In the movie "Blackfish" they interview a fisherman who was capturing orcas. He said he just lost it when they took the babies away and started to cry. It's like taking a kid away from his mother at the park. It's mean, bad, and I hate it. Orcas belong in the wild. There was recently a walk to free Lolita, an orca whale that has been held captive at Miami Seaquarium for 40 years. Her tank is 60-by-80-feet and is 20 feet long. It's way too small. On January 17, 2015, thousands of protesters gathered from all around the world outside the Seaquarium, to ask for Lolita's release, and asked other supporters to tweet #FreeLolita on twitter. Some people say that she will die in the wild. They say Miami Seaquarium is her "home". Lolita won't die in the wild, and even if she does, she'd rather that than live miserably in her tiny tank. Lolita used to live with another whale, Hugo. But he died March 4, 1980, by repeatedly smashing his head into the walls of the tank. We'd rather see Lolita die free and happy in the wild then do what Hugo did.

Could you live in a bathtub for 40 years?
If freed, whales like Lolita, that were born in captivity, would be put into a "sea pen" - a netted off area near the coast) for rehabilitation. When they are there they would learn the skills of orcas in the wild. Lolita needs to be freed!

Another orca is Tilikum, nicknamed Tilly, who is the star of the movie "Blackfish". Tilikum is involved in the death of 3 trainers during his time in captivity: a trainer at the now-defunct Sealand of the Pacific in South Oak Bay, British Columbia, a trainer at Orlando's Sea World (which is where Tilikum is now), and a man trespassing on Sea World Orlando's property. Tilikum measures 22.5 feet long and weighs 12,000 pounds. His 6.5 foot tall dorsal fin is collapsed completely to his left side - a sign of a stressed and depressed whale.  Tilikum is the largest orca whale in captivity. As a person in "Blackfish" remarked, "If you were in a bathtub for 25 years, don't you think you would get irritated, aggravated, and maybe a little psychotic?!?" 

People seem surprised about all the killer-whale-involved deaths. That annoys me. They do not belong in captivity, never did, and never will. They are killer whales, that's right, killer, not cuddle whales.

Tilikum's collapsed dorsal fin. Orca whales need to be freed from captivity.

Some ways you can help are:
Learn more about killer whales and their captivity. Read books and watch documentaries.
Tell your family and friends. Tell them not to support places like Sea World or Seaquarium or other places that orcas are held captive.
Make your voice heard. Protest against captivity and help spread the word. Do blog posts, write articles or papers, post on social media, support social media anti-captivity accounts, and more.

Thanks for reading! Please help free the orcas.


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Here are some sources I used to research this blog post:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_(orca)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilikum_(orca)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfish_(film)

http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Natures-Children-Childrens-Paperback/dp/0531254798