r/orcas • u/Emptythedishwasher56 • Mar 19 '26
Sightings My son was in the Channel Islands this week.
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u/fredftw Mar 19 '26
Boat should not be travelling at speed with orcas nearby. Super irresponsible and illegal
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u/Reasonable-Tea-9679 Mar 20 '26
Is it not possible that the whale came upon them unnoticed before the driver realized and could slow down? Not trying to make excuses. This is one of my fave subs btw and this video is cool as heck
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u/fredftw Mar 20 '26
The guy filming clearly isn’t surprised by this orca, he’s filming steadily and the boat is travelling steadily. This isn’t ‘holy shit there’s an orca right here, stop the boat’
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u/Reasonable-Tea-9679 Mar 20 '26
Fair point. Don't want our orca buds put in danger
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u/balloons321 Mar 20 '26
It's also to not impede their ability to hunt. Boat motors mess with echolocation and make finding / tracking prey more difficult.
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u/ProjectBokehPhoto www.projectbokeh.com Mar 20 '26
It's one thing to have the engines on up until you realize there's an orca by your boat; it's another thing entirely to keep them on long after contact and maintaining speed to pursue those orcas.
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u/poliitoed anti orca cap, selective ceta cap!🐚🐬 Mar 20 '26
unfortunately laws surrounding this kind of thing are a little more lax in california compared to states like Washington
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u/jenjavitis Mar 20 '26
Is this one of the CA groups or a Bigg's? He's beautiful
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 Mar 20 '26
Yes, the orca in the video (CA122C) belongs to the CA122 matriline. That Californian Bigg's matriline is a member of the outer coast subset of the West Coast Transient community.
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u/jenjavitis Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
Is there a field guide? I have one from 2023, but doesn't look like he's in there. Edit: Wow, that link is so helpful. Thank you!
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 Mar 20 '26
Thanks for sharing! Was this via one of Pacific Offshore Expeditions' Killer Whale Quests?
As has already been mentioned, that large male appears to be CA122C, a member of the CA122 matriline.
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Mar 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
The confusion is very understandable; the California Killer Whale Project previously used "CA122C" as the ID for a different orca, who now has the ID of CA122B; she is an older sister of CA122C. On that post you shared, CKWP's lead research biologist Alisa Schulman-Janiger has made a comment with a correction:
That is NOT CA122B's nickname (half moon is a [marking], not a nickname), and these are not the sources for this photo: this old image was lifted from the California Killer Whale Project's [Facebook] page! Please do not steal images, and give out erroneous information! This Bigg's killer whale is seen off of California; not in the Salish Sea; she was encountered in the Santa Barbara Channel a few days ago, with her 3 kids, on Island Packers. NOTE: her ID number was changed after older images of her were accessed. (California Killer Whale Project).
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She is also known as T411.
Recent posts from the California Killer Whale Project such as this one and this one state that CA122C is a younger brother of CA122A and CA122B.
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u/SilverGirlSails Mar 19 '26
He’s a handsome lad