Lover Of Orcas

Orca hunting seals on Peninsula Valdez, photo by François Sarano.

beautiful Jaluel (PTN-019) !

It's a GIRL!

The newest member of the Southern Residents is confirmed as female by CWR and has been spotted with her mother, Tsuchi (J31)!

Researchers from DFO Pacific also reported seeing members from J-pod, K-pod, and L-pod.

( source & source )

J45 “Se-yi-chn” with a boisterous, full body breach.

#killerwhale #orca #blackfish #salishsea #leavethefishalone https://ift.tt/2GSwARR

Don’t y’all dare pull this “dorsal injuries happen in the wild too!11!” bullshit

Shit like that happens when an animal is struck by a boat or gets entangled in some shit (don’t turn that into “the ocean isn’t safe!!1″ nonsense either, that’s a whole ‘nother story)

They don’t snap their bent dorsal fins the wrong way or scrape them wrong against a slideout or whatever the fuck happened to Katina ^ seriously someone needs to figure that out

relevant excerpt: “The injured orca was near a 12-year-old male named Trua when she was hurt, but since she was also interacting with several other members of the orca pod, veterinarians are not sure exactly how she was injured, SeaWorld said. SeaWorld officials said aggressive behavior is natural for their species of whale, so they would not be surprised if the whales had been interacting in that manner, but that it is not clear if they were at the time of Katina’s injury. “Killer whales are a social and hierarchal species, so interacting with other members of the pod, even in an aggressive or antagonistic manner, is a natural behavior we’d expect to see,” the post read. “However, it’s not clear if this was the result of an aggressive behavior or other interactions within the orca pod.” The post also emphasized that the aggressive behavior is not a result of the whales living in captivity and that it is not uncommon among wild killer whale orca pods.”

actually it IS pretty uncommon (esp. within a pod), but you know. reality is hard in theme-park-circus land. 

Katina is top dog in this “pod” though. I mean it’s not impossible of course, but it just seems less likely to me. As other people have mentioned there are no rake marks to be seen. The closest injury I personally have seen to this in the wild was Ben in New Zealand and his was caused by a boat. Funny how it’s “not uncommon” but we hardly ever see this shit in the wild....

That being said, however, as far as gates go, I have seen a few different videos of various whales stopping the gates when they don’t want them to close or don’t want to stay in one pool. There was a video recently uploaded of Tilikum rushing the gate and it bounced off of him and opened back up. And of course there is that infamous video of Kalia playing around during her pregnancy. I bring this up because while, once again not impossible, it seems less likely that it could be a gate. Their air pressure system (IIRC that’s what it is, please correct me if I’m wrong) seems much more gentle than the gates of the days when Kotar met his end. 

The Invaluable

My newest piece for the Orca-Zine - a charity book which is going to be available at Superpod 6 - www.orcasuperpod.com - All profits from the sale of this book will be split equally and donated to the Center for Whale Research and Orca Network. Since SRKWs run out of salmon quite fast, I thought of making an artwork that would speak about it. For the industries salmon is one of the ways to make money, but for the whales it’s a source of energy and life. For the orcas salmons are invaluable. To choose the whale for the main role of this drawing I hosted a public poll and people’ve choosen Blackberry J27. There are ways to help SRKWs: - Adopt a Southern Resident killer whale - Contact Politicians - Tell the Columbia river System Operations to breach the lower Snake River dams - What can you personally do?

Animated Process of this Artwork — http://fav.me/dbx0lkn

Breaking Stillness

Finally finished! My submission for the orca charity book (organized by @derangedhyena-delphinidae) featuring one of my favorite southern residents - J27 Blackberry!

This piece was a huuuuuge learning experience for me, both with painting techniques and subject matter (making smooth things look wet is HARD). Regardless, I’m looking forward to seeing how the book comes together!

My first ever adopted orca. I love it!

J16 Slick and her youngest calf, J50 Scarlet. NOAA

Someone is trying to tell me that Keto ramming Alexis was ‘an accident.’ I… hm.

Compression fractures, lacerations to his internal organs and bite marks were all an accident? Damn, Keto is one clumsy mother fucker.

J52 isn’t looking good. :/

You know, for once,I wish the cetacean community could put aside their differences and work together.

The SRKW are dying. They desperately need our help. They’ve been gone for long and returned and now it’s not looking good for at least one of them. Where is the outcry?

If J52 dies, I want the same outcry as when Tilikum, Kyara or Kasatka passed. I want people to be thoroughly upset and realise we need to take action because no one else will. Questions need to be asked and pressure needs to be put on the appropriate people to remove dams and allow for more food. It’s essential if we want to keep the SRKW around.

So instead of focusing on SeaWorld, or VanAqua, or MSQ, can we please, just for now, focus instead on this ever dwindling group of animals now that we still have a chance to save them? Now is the time, not later when they lose even more members.

I don’t disagree. Speaking as someone from the anticap side of the debate, I can assuredly say that most of the antis here on Tumblr (or at least all of the active ones I interact with) care deeply for the SRKW’s situation, and are perusing multiple avenues to help. Calling/emailing government officials, lobbying for the removal of the Snake River dams and various legislative changes, raising awareness online and sharing information, donating to research and conservation organizations, signing petitions.

But as people who all collectively love cetaceans, I don’t think it’s wrong to care about more than one thing at the same time. I think you can fight for the SRKW, while ALSO fighting for better welfare for captive animals, while ALSO fighting for reducing ship strikes, while ALSO fighting for the Vaquita population. You can shuffle your priority of issues around without giving up on any one of them, especially if there are multiple issues happening simultaneously.

Honestly both the SRKW’s situation and the captivity industry are both man-made problems (again, speaking as an anti for the latter), and I personally feel like I have a moral responsibility to help deal with both. Regardless, I think the core of your point stands for BOTH sides of the debate. I think problems arise when people bring their side of the captivity debate into the SRKW discussion, which often further drives the two sides apart.

It's not as though we don't want that as well. It's the larger public that isn't noticing or caring. I share news of the SRKW (births, deaths, info on how to help them survive, etc.) on my public and personal accounts. Us anticaps that you interact with most regularly do, as @thelonelywhale said, care deeply for this population. We also care about captive orcas and, again in agreement with thelonelywhale, as long as antis stop speaking of how SeaWorld helped damage the population in the 70s and the pros stop speaking of how deaths in the wild communities justifies captive deaths, it wouldn't be an issue to continue to fight for both.

However the SRKWs don't belong to a business. They don't have shares or profit reports. They haven't had a CNN documentary made about them and their situation. Far more people are going to see SeaWorld's orcas than them, making Shamu much more visible and familiar. People just don't know and that's why, unfortunately, we won't see that reaction for J52.

Pondering how to illustrate something that conveys my disgust with this situation without disrespecting Kasatka.  

You can only disrespect Kasatka so. Don’t illustrate it lmao.

Nah, if you don’t want me to, I really need to. <3

Mhm, maybe add some chains and an old-fashioned ball on the rostrum and some blood you know, because torture and shit is rampant of course. :D

So glad you’re familiar with the Seaworld aesthetic. ;)  

YOUR SeaWorld aesthetic, lmao.

I dunno, man. Dead whales are really in this year at the place, I’ve heard. 

This is literally San Diego’s first death since Sumar passed away in 2010. They’re just unlucky that two old orcas passed and that one calf caught pneumonia and passed as well. Shit happens. You know how many animals of a certain species die across zoological facilities every day? Many more. It’s just that SeaWorld has a small orca population, is in the media pretty much every day being lied about, and thus three orca is a lot.

Oh don’t forget orca skeletons in the pool too, many of them, that’s your creepy style yep. What a scary mind, what a weird point of view…

Scary mind? Lol, what, are you some paranoid conservative parent from the 1980s?

Am I the paranoid? I’m not the one thinking everyone is bad, everyone likes to mistreat animals and draws blood, and dead whales forming a mountain in the pools floor, also skeletons interacting with trainers…

“She draws scary things, there must be something wrong with her!” By that logic, anyone involved in making horror movies or much of the superhero media should be institutionalized. Unless she expresses interest in killing trainers or shooting up her high school because the cheerleaders are mean to her, there’s no need to be scared.

Naw you miss the point.  It’s the need of seeing what doesn’t exist just to ..”hurt”” the company Do I remind you she drew an orca with a dead trainer in the mouth? You know, respectful things, normal things

> seeing what doesn’t exist > orca with a dead trainer in the mouth 

reality’s a pretty disturbing place, visit it sometime.

god damn slaying this bullshit all day everyday 👌🏻

it’s a mix of the ‘if you love a flower, don’t pick it up’ idea and the fact that parts of plants that are supposed to be pretty (but aren’t anymore) get pruned. fake happy theme park space wants to control your experience and doesn’t want you to think too much about ailing animals and their families. 

Wow!

What a gorgeous bull!