Discover Johnstone Strait

Orcas establish social hierarchies, and pods are lead by females. The animals are thought to have a complex form of communication with different dialects (slightly different language) from one pod to another.

Pods sometimes will force many fish into one area and take turns feeding or will beach (slide out of the water onto the shore) themselves to scare seals or penguins into the water where other whales are waiting to feed.

Like dolphins, orcas use echolocation—bouncing sound off of objects to determine their location—to hunt, and use a series of high-pitched clicks to stun prey. Orcas feed on fish, squid, birds, and marine mammals. Orca pods often work together to catch a meal.

Orca whales are the ocean's fastest swimmers, capable of speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.

Killer whales live about as long as humans, reproducing over a similar age span. Most females first give birth at age 14 and bear four to six calves over the next 25 years then enjoy life as doting grandmothers, into their seventies and eighties!

Males mature also at age 14 and live to about 60 years.

Around the world, orca whales divide into three subspecies (or races) that do not intermingle but neither do they show hositlity between races. "Resident" whales are the best known of the three, navigating directly along coastal passages, feeding exclusively on fish and maintaining highly social family units.

Transient" whales inhabit the same waters, but are markedly less social, travelling alone or in much smaller family groups. These whales are more aggressive and can be identified by their smaller, more pointed dorsal fins with a slight bulge on the leading edge. Transients seem to ignore fish but feed on seals, sea lions, porpoises and other sea mammals.

The final subspecies is that of the "offshore" killer whales, which live in large groups of 30-60 or more. Their dorsal fins are crescent shaped with rounded tips. These subspecies thrive independently of each other, despite their overlapping ranges.