As one of the three animals (orcas, humans and short-finned pilot whales) that go through menopause, orcas are a special species.
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Since orcas can live as long as 80 years, it will likely be decades before we see the last of SeaWorld's orcas.
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The orcas continued to circle the boat for 30-45 minutes afterwards, demonstrating that not only are orcas intelligent, but that they're persistent.
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The film showed 40-year-old footage of baby orcas being stolen from their distraught families by SeaWorld paid captors, the mother orcas screeching and shaking because their children were taken from them to other parks, and the incredible lifespan and complex social lives of orcas in the wild.
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Tilikum killed his trainer in 2010, and became a focal point in the debate over the quality of life orcas experience at SeaWorld, and how orcas respond to it.
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The orcas then were seen as competition; hunters and fisherman would shoot up pods of orcas because they were eating up the salmon or seals that the fishermen wanted for themselves.
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So, above and beyond the physical problems associated with poor dentition, the condition of these orcas' teeth makes it clear that there is considerable psychological stress in orcas held in entertainment parks.
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Unless they release these orcas, their business model is finished.
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The number of orcas under SeaWorld's care likely won't grow.
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Baby orcas were also involved in the carnage, said Ivkovich.
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When it comes to finding a meal, orcas don't discriminate.
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The other two orcas are known as K25 and L84.
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Like Ireland, Orcas Island is often called the Emerald Isle.
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In March, SeaWorld announced that it would stop breeding orcas.
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Today's puzzle has four ORCAs "swimming" in the theme entries.
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Orcas has all the ingredients of a perfect solo trip.
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"Black and white predators" in this puzzle are ORCAS. 53A.
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Worldwide, there are an estimated 50,000 killer whales, or orcas.
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Russia approved a capture quota for 13 orcas in 2018.
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The United States stopped issuing permits to capture orcas in 1989.
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The legislation also bans the use of orcas in entertainment shows.
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Currently, 23 orcas live at SeaWorld parks in the United States.
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Nor did the researchers confirm how many orcas attacked the shark.
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Although apex predators, orcas are not typically known to harm people.
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That orcas don't do well in captivity is hardly a secret.
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I came to believe that orcas should never be held captive.
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Miller's family announced he died of natural causes on Orcas Island.
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The "Blackfish" film helped change norms for orcas, or killer whales.
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Asia and Australia Edition Olympic security, political strongmen and talking orcas.
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There are now 21 orcas left at SeaWorld's three American parks.
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My son was with me for the orcas in Puget Sound.
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SeaWorld's current menagerie of orcas range in age from 1 to 51.
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Orcas made a spectacular showing this summer near British Columbia in Canada.
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Keeping orcas in small pools is cruel, so that's a good thing.
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"They are cute, like a pack of orcas is cute," Calacanis said.
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Scott Eastwood encountered a group of wild orcas while vacationing in Mexico.
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We all known orcas find open waters and real waves rather pleasant.
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The documented poor dentition in captive orcas is concerning on multiple levels.
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I went to a party on Orcas island in the Seattle area.
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In 1961, he had a close encounter with a pod of orcas.
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The orcas are simply the biggest problem — and the hardest to ignore.
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It is one of the orcas' favorite foraging grounds in the summer.
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Using an underwater microphone, we can eavesdrop on whales, orcas and dolphins.
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Suddenly, magically, a family of orcas leapt in front of the boat.
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It did not name the companies or the destination of the orcas.
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SeaWorld has argued for years that in continuing its program of holding orcas in captivity, it was helping to conserve the species and care for individual orcas who are injured or otherwise unfit to live in the wild.
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But it also called for the freeing of the remaining orcas, saying "SeaWorld must open its tanks to the oceans to allow the orcas it now holds captive to have some semblance of a life outside these prison tanks."
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Female orcas birth once every three to 10 years to a single offspring.
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While orcas aren't known to attack humans ... it's always a possibility they could.
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She's also stripped down to raise awareness for orcas in SeaWorld Theme Parks.
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SeaWorld has announced that it's ended the practice of breeding orcas in captivity.
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Orcas have only been spotted attacking great white sharks a handful of times.
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Boaters filmed a pod of orcas attacking great whites in California in 1997.
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Fourth, orcas have virtually no control over their lives, leading to learned helplessness.
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Jared Huffman, D-California, who sponsored legislation to protect orcas, applauded the decision.
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About a dozen orcas started circling the boat trying to find their prey.
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Life expectancy for orcas in the wild can be as high as 80.
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The company has 29 orcas: 11 in San Diego; seven in Orlando, Fla.
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Orcas have strong family bonds, cooperate to hunt and possess startling vocal expressiveness.
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Especially when I lived on Orcas and Bolinas, [California] when you live rurally.
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He's pulled up stakes and now lives on a boat on Orcas Island.
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Then in March, SeaWorld announced its current orcas will be its last ones.
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"I believe we have orcas in our soul in this state," he said.
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Orcas evolved eating big wild fish, some 2100 to 1007 pounds a day.
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Before Orcas Island, he wrote about the Azores and their Instagram-ready beauty.
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PETA said about 140 dolphins and some 20 orcas remain at SeaWorld parks.
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"Orcas are very smart and they work together - they&aposre pack hunters," Naylor added.
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Both the toxins and the commotion can further cripple the orcas&apos immune systems.
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At least 45 orcas have died at SeaWorld since the park opened in 1954.
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In a 2009 study, young elementary children watched their virtual doppelgänger swimming with orcas.
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Scientists have noted that it's during the winter that the orcas are especially starving.
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There is also no evidence that captive orcas live any longer than wild ones.
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It is not just orcas that are suffering because of the decline of salmon.
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All Orcas will come with a five-year, 2000,000 kilometer (roughly 12,427 miles) warranty.
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Orcas are among only a small number of mammals known to go through menopause.
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Especially for orcas, they are the most unsuitable to be put in a tank.
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The scientists spotted the elusive "Type D" orcas off of Cape Horn, Chile, in January.
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But genetic testing may reveal that Type D orcas are a new and different species.
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It's still unclear whether orcas and other marine mammals would be part of that expansion.
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For instance, the proposed agreement would ban surfing on, swimming under and standing on orcas.
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Its orcas will be the last generation at its parks, the organization announced in March.
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How will this affect not only the orcas but other animals in captivity at SeaWorld?
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The seal's life was saved, and the the group of orcas continued circling the boat.
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There are just 75 of the black-and-white orcas that frequent Washington state waters.
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Rather, it wants chimpanzee rights for chimpanzees, orca rights for orcas, elephant rights for elephants.
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Over all of SeaWorld's parks, there are now only 20 orcas that remain in captivity.
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You see everything from orcas to white sharks have these cookie cutter bites on them.
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So orcas feel emotions, however exotically, which in turn strikes an emotional chord in us.
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"We decided that Orcas was probably where we'd end up," in retirement, Mr. Coleman said.
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Some female orcas are estimated to be in their 80s or 90s, according to Franks.
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Jay Inslee on September 24 will release a draft of recommendations to help the orcas.
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Many scientists favor removing dams on some rivers to save the orcas and the fish.
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In the full video posted below, the shrieking, echoey sounds of orcas burst through your earbuds.
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All orcas are currently considered part of Orcinus orca, the largest species of the dolphin family.
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The park said it doesn't anticipate any physical health issues among the remaining orcas in Orlando.
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Orcas ate a minke whale, it's not a big one, up to 12 meters in length.
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Orcas were listed as an endangered species in the U.S. and Canada over a decade ago.
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The orcas are distinct from other killer whales because they eat salmon rather than marine mammals.
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Orcas pass around calf&aposs body in mourning ritual one week after its death, report says.
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There are now 22 orcas remaining at SeaWorld parks in Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego.
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I and some others would like to see orcas retired to net pens in natural waters.
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Good times for Scott for sure, but still ... nothing compared to hanging out with some orcas.
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The 24 orcas the company currently has are located in parks in California, Texas and Florida.
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Orcas is a seductive place and many are tempted to extend their stay on the island.
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Mother orcas gestate for 17 months, and the babies nurse for about a year after that.
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Orcas are the wolves of the water: they are smart, they are strong, they are vicious.
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Like us, orcas are self-aware, cognitively skilled individuals that communicate using their pod's signature dialect.
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That meant the orcas in the park's care would be its last generation of killer whales.
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It posits that orcas only become killer whales after psychosis garnered from their time in captivity.
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The population has just 73 orcas and four grandmothers, whale researcher Deborah Giles told the Times.
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The orcas are social and can be playful, but only when they have time to play.
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The fate of the orcas currently at SeaWorld establishments continues to be a bone of contention.
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Maybe young orcas and other members of the dolphin family do better in small spaces, I reasoned.
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The mother and baby are part of the southern resident killer whale population, also known as orcas.
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Type D orcas are easily distinguished from other killer whales by their much smaller white eye patches.
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But as marine parks wither in America, they're flourishing in China, sparking fresh concerns about captive orcas.
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Some scientists say that a couple of orcas, or killer whales, scared them off from False Bay.
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SeaWorld still has 20 orcas in its parks, of which five remain in Orlando following Kayla's death.
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Atkinson also told CBC that this could be the orcas' version of a human wake or funeral.
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During observations, this lone beaked whale was spotted near a group of orcas, and a chase ensued.
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In the new study, the orcas appear to be feasting on young or female strap-tooth whales.
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Second, orcas are constantly bombarded by unwanted and unusual sensory disturbances, especially those of an acoustic nature.
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Typical noises endured by orcas include fireworks, noise from an audience, construction, and sounds from filtration systems.
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SeaWorld stopped its breeding program in 2016, but its orcas are still required to perform in shows.
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Still, it's bittersweet news when you consider the 23 orcas already living at the company's three parks.
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The orcas bashed the boats like toys in a bathtub while trying to hunt the sea lion.
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In Natural History, Pliny gives a vivid account of orcas attacking whales at the Strait of Gibraltar.
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Shannon Page is an author and editor on Orcas Island who has published dozens of short stories.
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The mammal jumped onto the back of a tour boat to escape the swarming pod of orcas.
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In return, the orcas were rewarded with their favorite morsels — the tongues and lips — from the carcasses.
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Some conservationists are concerned that the orcas' decline is another sign of a marine ecosystem in collapse.
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Orcas and other cetacean species have been observed carrying their dead, but rarely longer than a day.
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Yes, they're smart, but our fascination with orcas and other cetaceans also stems from something more esoteric.
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For decades, scientists have suspected that orcas acquire these dialects through social learning rather than genetic inheritance.
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Orcas have been shown to have complex social circles, use vocal communication, and exhibit emotions like grief.
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The film also accused the company of mistreating its orcas and endangering employees who worked with them.
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Giant Steller's eagles wheel overhead while offshore, orcas cavort and Kamchatka's king crabs grow bigger than footballs.
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With Tilikum's death, SeaWorld now has 22 orcas at parks in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego.
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Grandmother orcas have also been known to babysit their grand-calves while their daughters hunt, he added.
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Marine biologists say that would exacerbate the difficulties the region's endangered orcas already face in finding prey.
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The calf, known as L173, is part of a group of orcas known as the Southern Residents.
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They also have more rounded heads and pointier dorsal fins compared to Type A, B, and C orcas.
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Orcas often hunt in packs, and are known as one of the most brutal predators in the ocean.
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The company also announced that it would help develop its first SeaWorld park without orcas, in Abu Dhabi.
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Puget Sound orcas, like J56, have been listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 2005.
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The criticism intensified after three orcas died at SeaWorld San Antonio within a six-month span in 2015.
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In March of this year, SeaWorld made the surprising announcement that it would no longer breed captive orcas.
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These orcas are facing a real threat of extinction, with no successful pregnancies in the last three years.
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This long life in open water is in stark contrast to the world of SeaWorld orcas like Tilikum.
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And it has just announced that it will no longer breed killer whales, often called orcas, in captivity.
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In the clip, a pod of orcas can be seen charging a bluff with some seriously impressive speed.
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As the years pass, there is so much violence against orcas that the incidents start to blend together.
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Endangered since 2005, the orcas are essentially starving, as their primary prey, the king salmon, are dying off.
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"They love start-ups, but in the same way that orcas love baby seals," our tech columnist writes.
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When describing the many sublime characteristics of orcas, even the most rational scientists can begin to sound emotional.
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It has a bustling wildlife population and is one of many feeding grounds in the area for Orcas.
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Across its three parks, SeaWorld has 20 orcas, also known as killer whales, remaining, according to its statement.
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This is fishing country and also a destination for viewing wildlife — orcas have been spotted off the coast.
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An illustrator was doing some research for a children's book on orcas when she stumbled upon a puzzle.
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I woke up, as I had every day on Orcas, feeling better rested than I have all year.
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Care was also taken not to disturb the orcas, humpback whales and manta rays in the surrounding waters.
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She takes an immediate interest in pilot whales and orcas, the only other animals known to undergo menopause.
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Orcas, also known as killer whales, have been a main attraction at theme parks run by the company.
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David Phillips at the Earth Island Institute countered SeaWorld's claims that captive orcas cannot survive in the wild.
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An intense drone video out of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia shows the impressive hunting abilities of a pod of orcas In the clip, filmed by Team Trip, a Russian tour operator, a pod of orcas can be seen feeding on a minke whale, believe to be over 30 feet long.
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On Thursday, the entertainment company announced it was ending its orca captive breeding program at all of its parks for good, and because it has long since stopped capturing orcas from the wild, that means the current orcas living at SeaWorld parks will be its last generation of killer whales.
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SeaWorld now has 22 orcas at its three facilities in Orlando, Florida; San Antonio, Texas; and San Diego, California.
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Orcas farther away from industrialized countries tend to be better off, such as those in the Arctic and Antarctic.
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Manby said the parks will use birth control to halt reproduction among its killer whales, also known as orcas.
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"Forty orcas have now died at SeaWorld parks," she said in a statement after receiving news of Kyara's death.
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While most fans were in awe of the beautifully captured moment, others warned Eastwood of the dangers of orcas.
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PETA said it may appeal, and that the decision ignores current public sentiment about the suffering of captive orcas.
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At the same time, captive orcas often display unusual stress-related behaviors, such as self-mutilation, listlessness, and agitation.
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Jay Inslee signed an executive order in March directing state agencies to take immediate action to help the orcas.
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If you take away one thing from this study, it should be this: Sharks aren't as scary as orcas.
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Of all the species not suited for captivity, orcas are at the top of the list, along with elephants.
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Breaking up the operator famed for its orcas might create some value, but it still looks a slippery target.
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SeaWorld Entertainment is to end the breeding of orcas - or killer whales - following continued criticism from animal rights activists.
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O just bought a sprawling 43-acre estate on Orcas Island tucked away in an inlet, north of Seattle.
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Orcas — arguably the most beautiful of the San Juans — is shaped a bit like a basset hound's droopy ears.
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New Zealand seems to simply be teeming with orcas, but it's still special to get a close-up look.
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The trip visits areas known for icebergs, orcas and humpback whales, glaciers and puffins, and costs $4,000 a person.
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Southern Residents need robust and bold actions on a big scale if these magnificent orcas are going to survive.
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While the orcas of Puget Sound are starving, Trump is trying to weaken the law that protects endangered species.
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So the benefits of keeping orcas in enclosed pools is quite limited, other than their potential for commercial profit.
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Most recently there has been increasing backlash against the captivity of elephants and orcas, highly communal and empathic species.
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He added that female orcas are not kept separate from males, which could lead to "accidental" pregnancies in captivity.
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However, a photograph from Ocean Friends showed transportation tanks on a Russian ship called Jurii Shvezov holding two orcas.
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An expedition of scientists has recorded a mysterious family of orcas, known only through rumors and a few rare sightings.
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Five of them were captured in the wild, but it has not caught orcas at sea for almost 40 years.
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It's not exactly new that killer whales, also called orcas, can learn to recognize boats and then steal their catches.
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The film showed the unflattering way the company treated orcas, or killer whales, at many of its aquatic theme parks.
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The livers, at least, contain the nutrient squalene, which could be a reason the orcas opt for that organ, specifically.
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Click here to view original GIFAs apex predators, orcas can prey on whichever marine animal they choose—large or small.
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Scientists have seen orcas hunt an assortment of prey, including fish, seals, dolphins, and even the calves of large whales.
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The scathing 2013 documentary Blackfish brought the plight of captive orcas to the world's attention, prompting changes in the industry.
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Noticing a pod of massive orcas charging towards them, the swimmers wisely exited the water for the safety of land.
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Here's what she told us:This study provides an unequivocal empirical confirmation of poor welfare in orcas confined to concrete tanks.
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In the aerial clip, a pod of orcas can be seen attacking a small calf that's swimming alongside its mother.
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Using its tail, the mother whale fights back against the orcas, staying with its young for the hour-long attack.
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"It's time for SeaWorld to move the orcas to sanctuaries, where they could enjoy a more natural life," she added.
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Perhaps it's no coincidence that other mammals that feature stable matrilineal communities — including lemurs and orcas — also exhibit great intelligence.
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Documentaries like "Blackfish," which depicted the treatment of orcas within the sea-park industry, have also helped fuel that notion.
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"The fishermen let us know where the orcas and whales are; we talk back and forth a lot," Hasegawa said.
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Two years ago, we moved to Orcas Island in Washington — here's what a week of our typical spending looks like.
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Breaking up the operator famed for its orcas might create some value, but it still looks like a slippery target.
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Trilobites Concentrations of the toxins are very high, lingering in the orcas' blubber, and are passed from mother to calf.
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Since childhood, I've been fascinated by orcas, amazed by their intelligence, their grace and the complexity of their social relationships.
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"Blackfish," released in July 2013, had depicted as cruel the captivity and exhibition of orcas, or killer whales, including by SeaWorld.
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As for what induces the individual attacks, there are lots of reasons a great white would approach a pod of orcas.
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This is hardly the first case of infanticide in mammals, but it's the first observation of such an act in orcas.
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In 2016, the entertainment company said it would no longer take orcas from the wild or breed killer whales in captivity.
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Female orcas give birth every three to 10 years, according to National Geographic, and their gestation period is 15-18 months.
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Scarlet is a member of the J-Pod, a group of about 76 critically endangered southern resident orcas, or killer whales.
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This is a melon-headed whale — *technically* part of the oceanic dolphin family, Delphinidae, which also includes orcas and pilot whales.
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"The part I would've enjoyed most about that" — watching orcas and dolphins slice through the water — "is gone now," she says.
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Partly to blame are human actions like harvesting that have negatively impacted the numbers of local salmon, which the orcas eat.
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That's a completely new hunting behavior, one that appears to be unique to orcas living near Bremer Bay in southwest Australia.
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"Orcas and other cetaceans are actually more vulnerable to stress in entertainment parks because of their cognitive complexity," she told Gizmodo.
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The baby orca was the first calf born in three years to the endangered orcas, the Center for Whale Research said.
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"It's still very much like another country," said Mr. Symons, author of "Potholes in Paradise," a book about life on Orcas.
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After spending time on Orcas, he asked Mr. Pavitt if he could help him find a landscaping job on the island.
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Whale shows will now focus on actions natural to wild orcas, such as communicating between one another and searching for food.
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Though not total freedom, they would offer orcas a much more natural environment, with an exponential increase of space and autonomy.
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They belong to the Delphinidae family, otherwise known as oceanic dolphins, which also includes orcas and two species of pilot whales.
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Trilobites Scientists have collected skin samples from the unusual orcas, which could help determine whether they are a distinct cetacean species.
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After the accident, which involved two other whales, all of the orcas at Sealand of the Pacific were purchased by SeaWorld.
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His last dispatch was from Orcas Island in Washington, where he confronted the loneliness of a solo trip around the world.
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With the death of Tilikum, SeaWorld now holds 22 orcas at its three facilities in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego.
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But this party was a little dull — nothing like the more playful, interactive gatherings these orcas used to have decades ago.
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But no orcas - or killer whales, known for their distinctive black and white coloring - have been displayed publicly up to now.
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Folks have spotted orcas killing dolphins and sea lions, and a Nat Geo documentary shows whales eating a great white in 1997.
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In 2010, Pitman and his colleagues published a paper and six additional images of Type D orcas in the journal Polar Biology.
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In addition to filming the animals, Pitman's expedition obtained three genetic samples of the orcas' tissues by firing crossbow darts at them.
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There are now 20 orcas that remain in captivity in SeaWorld's three parks (San Diego and San Antonio are the other two).
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SeaWorld has seen attendance fall since the 2013 documentary "Blackfish" criticized conditions of captive orcas, implying that confinement made them more aggressive.
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SeaWorld and other parks in the state will no longer be allowed to catch orcas and keep them captive for breeding purposes.
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Prior to Tahlequah, orcas and dolphins had been seen carrying their calves for as long as a week, according to the researchers.
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The orcas have been struggling because of a lack of Chinook salmon, which, like their marine mammal predators, is listed as endangered.
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Geguri previously played on professional Overwatch team ROX Orcas, which competed in the top competitive Overwatch league, APEX, before Overwatch League began.
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With Kasatka's death, SeaWorld now has 21 orcas at its three facilities in San Diego (10), Orlando (6), and San Antonio (5).
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I was delighted by the various creatures — especially the flamingoes' surprising friendliness — and I didn't have strong feelings about the captive orcas.
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Orcas are intensely curious animals, so it's probably they were just heading over to say "hi," just in a really aggressive manner.
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A mother gray whale managed to successfully defend her calf from a pod of hungry orcas in Monterey Bay, California on Sunday.
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Orcas attracts plenty of visitors in the summer, but it retains a quiet, pastoral vibe that hints at the island's agrarian roots.
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Will you ensure that Russian orcas and beluga whales are protected and halt plans to take them from the Sea of Okhotsk?
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SeaWorld said this spring that it would stop breeding orcas and would invest millions of dollars in rescuing and rehabilitating marine animals.
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SeaWorld, its reputation savaged by a documentary about the suffering of orcas at its marine parks, is ending its orca-breeding program.
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The company recently announced that its orcas (killer whales) will no longer pose, dance or kiss during performances, reports The Chicago Tribune.
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Peter Ross, director of Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean Pollution Research Program and a leading ecotoxicologist, said two broad categories of contaminants affect orcas.
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She has bought a $14 million ski chalet in Colorado and, most recently, an $8 million estate on Washington state's Orcas Island.
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Listed as endangered since 225, the orcas are essentially starving, as their primary prey, the Chinook, or king salmon, are dying off.
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Some say the noise from boat traffic — including whale watching vessels — could be messing with the echolocation the orcas use to hunt.
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Orcas is having a food moment right now, one of the reasons it landed on the 2019 52 Places to Go list.
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Cecily Gardner Craighill and William John Davis Jr. were married July 1 at the Rosario Resort and Spa on Orcas Island, Wash.
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SeaWorld announced Thursday that it is ending its orca breeding program, making the 29 orcas currently in captivity the park's last generation.
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Four companies were involved in the sale of the orcas to China, according to a statement from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
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Orcas used to be widespread throughout the global oceans, but due to PCBs and other factors, only a few populations are gaining numbers.
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The disappearance of salmon creates an ecological domino effect that devastates other species, like orcas and eagles, that rely on them for feeding.
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SeaWorld just announced that the company will end its breeding program and that this will be the last generation of orcas in captivity.
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Orcas, "like many other highly intelligent, large, wide-ranging, and socially complex animals, cannot thrive in a concrete tank or cage," said Marino.
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Several groups on Wednesday said the loss of the calf highlights the need for quick action in order to save orcas from extinction.
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"The orcas will continue to live at SeaWorld for many years to come, inspiring guests in new and natural ways," the company said.
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However, this pod of orcas has become notorious for hunting gray whale calves this year, racking up five documented attacks since April 19.
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San Juan Island is a bit more mainstream than Lopez and Orcas and tends to attract tourists who like more action and amenities.
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They live on Orcas Island in Washington — they have a small mortgage, and covered their first three years of payments with their savings.
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RIA-Novosti, citing the Vladivostok environmental prosecutor's office, said 11 orcas (or killer whales) and several dozen belugas were being kept in cages.
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Orcas, also known as killer whales, are powerful predators, so it might seem a little intimidating to strike up a conversation with one.
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A female humpback whale nears diver Gustavo Verzoni just 24 hours after her calf was hunted and killed by a pair of orcas.
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Also known as orcas, killer whales are intelligent, social animals that pass survival information from grandmother to mother to daughter, Dr. Desforges said.
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While it shows that a captive killer whale can produce novel sounds when trained, it doesn't reveal how wild orcas use this ability.
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Dr. Rendell said it is "somewhat ironic" that this study, performed on captive animals, adds to a growing case against keeping orcas captive.
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There aren't many, but it turns out that six (including five orcas plus the KILLER WHALE revealer) is enough for a small pod.
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The aquatic theme park company has faced scrutiny and public outcry since 2013 when the "Blackfish" documentary criticized SeaWorld's handling of its orcas.
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Orcas could be seen in the ocean, just a block away, and beyond that the white-capped peaks of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula.
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If L41 is not just missing, but in fact dead, that would bring the population of Southern Resident orcas to just 72 whales.
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So Taiga Motors says it will build just 400 standard Orcas, and including the founders edition, only 500 will be made in total.
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Animal rights advocates have campaigned for sea animals held in captivity, like the orcas of SeaWorld, to be released into ocean sanctuaries for years.
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The other orcas at SeaWorld Orlando could be affected socially by Kayla's death, the park said, and orca behaviorists will be monitoring them closely.
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During a recent expedition off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, scientists captured rare footage of orcas attacking a 40-foot-long minke whale.
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Starting next July, orcas that are already in captivity may remain in the state, but they can only be used for educational presentations starting.
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I worked with 20 different orcas and performed in the water with 17 of them — including the corporation's riskiest and most dangerous killer whales.
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Her debut album Significant Changes, out March 22 via Ninja Tune, draws its title from the environmental changes facing the orcas in her research.
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"PETA has campaigned hard and today there is a payoff for future generations of orcas," PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk said in a statement.
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On the way back into the office, it really dawned on me — that that's how orcas must feel in captivity, in these concrete tanks.
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Earlier this year, SeaWorld San Diego said it would end its killer whale show and that its current orcas will be its last ones.
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Over in Kaikoura, New Zealand, a group of jet skiers recently found themselves surrounded by a family of orcas while out on the water.
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The orcas can be seen travelling alongside each other in a Facebook video by Boardsilly surf and sup adventures, as thrilled onlookers watch on.
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Those contaminants might not accumulate in orcas and other marine mammals, but they could have a negative impact on salmon and other prey fish.
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Exacerbating the problem is that orcas do not have babies often or in large numbers, and when they do, it is a long process.
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In the 1970s and 13s, theme parks like Sea World captured nearly 4 dozen orcas from the region, possibly shrinking the pods' gene pool.
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To learn the orcas' natural and cultural history is to understand how closely connected a mother and calf are, how tight-knit their bond.
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The orcas in SeaWorld's care are the last generation of the mammals to be enclosed at the water parks, the company said in 2016.
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Earlier this year, SeaWorld San Diego announced it would end its killer whale show and that its current orcas will be its last ones.
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Some whales, and orcas (the largest in the dolphin family despite their killer whale designation), hunt prey through echolocation, a kind of natural sonar.
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At least 13 Russian orcas were imported to China between 2013 and 2016, according to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
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A representative from Kupets, the company that owns the ship, said it was engaged in the transportation of orcas and did not catch them.
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In March, the company said it would stop breeding killer whales in captivity, but would still put on performances with orcas at its three parks.
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Research shows that PCBs can impair killer whales' reproduction, disrupt orcas' endocrine and immune systems, and slow population growth or even cause them to decline.
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As is typical of orcas, they chased their prey to exhaustion, eventually killing the beaked whales through successive bites and forcing them underwater to drown.
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SeaWorld announced Thursday it would no longer breed killer whales in captivity at any of its parks, making its current generation of orcas its last.
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"It seems likely that orcas are again the cause of death but we will confirm after the autopsy," wrote Towner in the Marine Dynamics blog.
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Dolphins are made to "walk" on their tails and perform choreographed routines set to music, and orcas are trained to "play catch" and do backflips.
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After observing the orcas from a distance for 30 minutes, things took a turn when a sea lion sought refuge under one of the boats.
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Whale researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who works at the California Killer Whale Project, confirmed to BuzzFeed that the orcas were probably not in hunting mode.
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The rigorous methodology leaves no room for any conclusion other than that there is a serious veterinary risk to captive orcas inherent in their confinement.
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SeaWorld announced today that it will stop breeding captive orcas, commonly known as killer whales, marking a major shift for the 57-year-old company.
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So, two years ago, we followed a long-standing dream and bought a lovely house with five acres (and a pond!) on Orcas Island, Washington.
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We had learned from captive orcas that the species was incredibly smart and social; Blackfish argued that these very qualities made them suffer in captivity.
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Though the original Shamu died in 1971, SeaWorld continued to use "Shamu" as a stage name for the orcas in its theatrical shows for decades.
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A quarter of a million seabirds, thousands of sea otters, hundreds of harbor seals, and 22 orcas were killed as a result of the spill.
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"Just the presence of boats can cause the whales to spend less time feeding," said Lynne Barre, of NOAA Fisheries, recovery coordinator for the orcas.
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This population of orcas peaked in the late 1990s, and has since declined because of multiple contributing factors, including lack of prey and habitat disturbance.
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And then the trip after that, we're going up to the fjords in Norway to swim with orcas as they go on a herring run.
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The death comes several years after SeaWorld announced it was ending its orca breeding program amid criticism about how it treated the orcas in captivity.
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Getting to Orcas isn't exactly easy, but the ferry ride from Anacortes, about an hour-and-a-half's drive from Seattle, is half the fun.
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It has just 73 orcas and four grandmothers, according to Deborah Giles, a killer whale researcher at the University of Washington's Center for Conservation Biology.
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The park's Orlando facility hosts seven orcas, San Antonio has five, San Diego has eleven, and SeaWorld's facility in Loro Parque, in Spain has six.
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The Kremlin has said the 11 orcas and 87 beluga whales were held in cruel conditions and were intended for sale to aquariums and Chinese buyers.
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New orcas will only be introduced to the parks if they are rescued from the wild and not fit to be released back into the ocean.
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Fraser's group was out on a routine whale watching trip in British Columbia, Canada, when they discovered a pod of 12 transient orcas chasing a seal.
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While Wikie's copycat attempts aren't perfect, they are impressive and show to Abramson and his team that orcas are excellent imitators, a sign of high intelligence.
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The animals are also one of only five mammal species to experience menopause, though female orcas can live for decades after they can no longer reproduce.
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The big picture: Many populations of orcas may disappear entirely during the next 100 years due to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, building up in their tissue.
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The criticism intensified after the 2013 documentary film "Blackfish," which sparked calls from politicians and animal rights groups for an end to holding orcas in captivity.
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It was my second bucket list number i was checking off in the same week after swimming with Orcas, my favorite animals, in their natural habitat!
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Three months after the whale jail started making headlines, Russian authorities have ordered that 11 orcas and 87 belugas be released from the facility, reports Reuters.
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Some of the biggest threats to the orcas include climate change, pollution, and a decrease in the Chinook salmon population, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
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Great white sharks and orcas overlap in their positions on the food chain—they can appear in the same places and feed on the same prey.
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There are possible ways to release orcas safely and effectively, but it's not always possible, and it doesn't sound like SeaWorld is even considering the option.
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Munchkin is dedicated to helping babies have the best start in life — and now the brand is working to give SeaWorld's orcas a fresh start, too.
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In general, the dental health of wild orcas is much better than captive killer whales, says Ventre, and the mechanism of wear-and-tear is slow.
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The company's treatment of killer whales gained broader attention following the 2013 release of Blackfish, a documentary that linked the orcas' captivity to their increased aggression.
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The layoffs are the latest change at the company that has faced public backlash "Blackfish," a documentary that criticized SeaWorld's handling of orcas, premiered in 2013.
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Tilikum's life was detailed in the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which made a case against keeping orcas in captivity for entertainment and damaged the theme park's image.
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Photographer Jack Preston was diving with friends Sunday when he encountered the orcas, which he said were hunting for stingray, and captured the video via drone .
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TAXES: $10,688 a year CONTACT: Anne Willoughby Nelson and Mary Clure, Gerrard Beattie & Knapp Realtors / Orcas Island Realty, (206) 660-3055/ (360) 961-7523; anne-meredith.com
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Michael Jasny of the Natural Resources Defense Council says cruises en route to Alaska "routinely drown out the calls of the endangered orcas" trying to communicate.
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Some of these stories date from the late 1800s and 1910s; but as late as the early 1960s, orcas had a reputation as a dangerous nuisance.
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She may not be the most polite conversationalist, but her efforts to ape human words has shed new light on the mysterious linguistic capabilities of orcas.
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Blackfish argues that orcas are unsuited for captivity and that their containment leads to an unhealthy, and often dangerous, environment for both the whales and trainers.
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For example, scientists and conservationists have expressed worry that the Kinder Morgan pipeline could drive an endangered population of orcas off the BC coast to extinction.
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The problem with this claim is that there seems to be little conservation benefit to capturing so many orcas and not releasing them or their offspring.
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Jay Inslee of Washington convened the Southern Resident Orca Task Force, a group of state, tribal, provincial and federal officials, to help protect the region's orcas.
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Over the years, I've sampled some extravagant framings of natural wonders: a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon; orcas seen from a hydrofoil in Puget Sound.
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About 70 percent of pregnancies among the southern resident orcas are lost before the calves are born, an alarmingly high figure, according to a recent paper.
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A new study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that another species benefits from the grandmother effect, too: orcas.
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The missing livers point to possible orca attacks—as we've reported before, shark livers are full of the nutrient squalene, which the orcas seem to be after.
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The first known sighting of the animals occurred in 1955, when a pod of 17 Type D orcas stranded themselves on the shores of Paraparaumu, New Zealand.
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Orcas are seldom seen in Kamchatka's Avachinsky Bay, so the researchers are going to stick around for a couple more weeks in hopes of making further observations.
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Competing sweat-proof earbuds that I've tried—namely, the Orcas from Outdoor Technology—still manage to fall out of your ears when you jostle them too much.
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The orcas now at the parks "will continue to live at SeaWorld for many years to come, inspiring guests in new and natural ways," the company said.
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Credit: Fredrik ChristiansenThe ocean is dark and full of terrors—including hungry orcas, and horny men looking to bang your mom, if you're a baby humpback whale.
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SeaWorld, which has orcas at its park in San Diego, said it doesn't have a position on the bill, but it ended its breeding program in March.
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J35, a member of the critically endangered southern resident family of orcas, gave birth to her calf Tuesday only to watch it die within half an hour.
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Though the study relies on estimates from survey data, it presents evidence that the great white sharks feeding around the Southeast Farallon Islands feared the visiting orcas.
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The trio had private time with two orcas who can be seen "making music and dancing" along with the family, as instructed by one of the trainers.
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Ventre, along with his collaborator John Jett of Stetson University, both worked with captive orcas at SeaWorld in Florida, and both observed this destructive behavior first hand.
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In terms of what should be done, Ventre says aquatic parks should consider phasing out orca captivity through attrition, and refrain from capturing orcas for human entertainment.
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Orcas can live for decades, and as this new study shows, the compromised condition of orca teeth make them poor candidates for release back into the wild.
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"Orcas deserve a full life in the ocean, not a life sentence of swimming endless circles until they drop dead from disease," Cromwell said in the statement.
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A few weeks later, SeaWorld filed a lawsuit challenging a California commission's ruling that banned the theme park from breeding captive orcas at its San Diego park.
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The fish have point values, though the largest ones—orcas and whales—can soak heavy amounts of damage or travel with a host of lower-point bodyguards.
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Much is still unknown about the plight of these orcas, but biologists and conservation managers have zeroed in on several main factors — and they are all connected.
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They were part of a new study that illustrates the deep importance of social learning for orcas — and contributes to the case against keeping them in captivity.
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There were always surprises: a particularly stunning sunset, a vivid meteor shower, orcas breaching in the distance, pods of frolicking dolphins, and porpoises surfing our bow wave.
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Now you find the other two, and don't forget to note the revealer at 59A, where we learn that our ORCAs are a pod of KILLER WHALES.
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SeaWorld has long faced criticism of its marine-mammal shows, and faced heavy condemnation after the 2013 release of "Blackfish," a documentary about its treatment of orcas.
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Opinions are split on the possible environmental damage of whale watching tours, but there's no doubt that some of the Pacific Northwest's orcas are in serious trouble.
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This has led to PCBs seeping into the oceans, where they present a particular risk to marine mammals at the top of the food chain like orcas.
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The fish are a keystone food source for other species, and an endangered population of orcas may be starving for lack of enough wild salmon to eat.
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Russia, which is the sole supplier of wild orcas and beluga whales to China, in July announced an investigation into the illegal sale of 7 killer whales.
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A pod of orcas, which are actually a type of dolphin and not whale, were spotted feeding on a shark off the coast of California in Monterey Bay.
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Pilots whales, which have rounded heads and mouthlines that curve upward to resemble a smile, are in the dolphin family and are smaller than orcas, or killer whales.
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The current generation of killer whales will be the last orcas housed in captivity at the park, SeaWorld said "What we're seeing is the 'Blackfish' effect," Lange said.
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Because orcas are at the top of the food chain, they have far higher concentrations of PCBs in their system than smaller species lower on the food chain.
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Pilots whales, which have rounded heads and mouthlines that curves upward to resemble a smile, are in the dolphin family and are smaller than orcas, or killer whales.
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Image: Hennie Otto/Marine Dynamics/Dyer Island Conservation TrustYou might remember last month when orcas ate an enormous great white shark's liver, Hannibal Lecter style, in South Africa.
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On two of these occasions, the orcas were seen stripping the carcasses of skin, indicating they were hunting for a meal and not just doing it for sport.
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Of course, wild orcas face their own stresses, including food shortages and pollutant exposure, but none are as persistent and all-consuming as those that captive whales endure.
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To understand the scope of the problem, Ventre and Jett investigated 29 captive orcas owned by SeaWorld Entertainment Corporation, which keeps whales in the US and in Spain.
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New orcas will only be introduced to the parks if they are rescued from the wild and are not healthy enough to be released back into the ocean.
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"We had four or five orcas all at once sitting at the back of the boat straight up and down sort of looking at the seal," said Templeman.
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One store is in Anacortes on Puget Sound, and the other is in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, where orcas frequent the waters each spring and summer.
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With more than 100 beers on draft at the festival, that just might be enough to take the edge off the memory of all those sad baby orcas.
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"Whale jail": After an international backlash, Russia started releasing some of the dozens of orcas and belugas captured by private companies for sale to theme parks in China.
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The decision, however, wasn't necessarily his to make — he gave the announcement soon after the powerful California Coastal Commission refused to give SeaWorld permission to continue breeding orcas.
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The research suggests that orcas learn to communicate with one another through a social process, the lead researcher said — and adds to a growing case against capturing them.
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To fill another afternoon, following one of many tips I received from readers (judging by my Instagram inbox, people really love Orcas), I went looking for some lakes.
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Well, Type D whales look like killer whales, or orcas, but they have a more rounded head, smaller white markings around the eyes and a different body shape.
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Now, researchers have discovered that the grandmother effect also holds true for orcas: The presence of a grandmother orca increases the survival rate of that whale&aposs grandchildren.
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But orcas live the longest after they&aposve stopped reproducing: Female killer whales stop bearing offspring around age 45, then can live for at least 16 more years.
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O'Barry, who captured and trained dolphins and orcas before launching a campaign against captive marine mammals in 1970, said China was the main driver of the industry globally.
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The orcas may be "the largest undescribed animal left on the planet," said expedition lead Bob Pitman, a researcher from NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center, in a statement.
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Labelled J2, she was a member of the Puget Sound orcas which are located in Washington State in the U.S., a small and closely monitored group of the species.
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J2's long lifespan was an example of why orcas shouldn't be kept in captivity, but questions remain on who will lead J pod now, which contains 24 individuals.
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Some activists have called for SeaWorld to release its orcas into coastal sanctuaries, but the company says whales born or raised in captivity would likely die in the wild.
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Three Southern Resident killer whales are presumed dead, according to the Center for Whale Research, bringing the total number of orcas in the "extremely endangered" population down to 73.
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Under the new law, the killer whales, or orcas, already in captivity may remain in the state, but they can only be used for "educational presentations" starting in June.
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I myself have been a victim of at least 10 major aggressions in the water with orcas where I was fortunately able to redirect the whale and safely escape.
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Image: APDiseases and premature deaths among confined orcas are linked to the tremendous stresses endured by these aquatic mammals as a result of their captivity, according to new research.
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These whales, which are the second largest member of the dolphin family after orcas, travel near these shores in tight-knit pods during the summer in the Southern Hemisphere .
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One of the most infamous orcas from the film, Tilikum, died January 6 from a bacterial lung infection (he was also responsible for the death of a park trainer).
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"Future generations of orcas will not endure the deprivation, stress, and frustration of being trapped in a tiny concrete tank," PETA vice president Tracy Reiman said in a statement.
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Orcas is popular with hikers, who are rewarded with sweeping sea views at the peak of Mount Constitution in Moran State Park and on Turtleback Mountain, among other places.
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The first orca Griffin procured, Namu, was caught accidentally by some fishermen, when a snagged fishing net trapped a pair of orcas between a reef and a rocky outcropping.
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Most killer whales eat a wider diet, but this particular group of about 75 resident orcas eats just salmon, which have been overfished in the area for commercial consumption.
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"Most of our orcas were born at SeaWorld, and those that were born in the wild have been in our parks for the majority of their lives," he wrote.
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For many of the same reasons as orcas, most marine scientists agree that cetaceans can never thrive in captivity, where their environment, stimuli, and social bonds are gravely limited.
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In March 2016, SeaWorld announced it would halt breeding of orcas in captivity but that the existing whales would continue to perform as they live out their remaining years.
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Orcas and beluga whales are among the marine animals caught up in a shadowy trade in which individual cetaceans - often caught illegally - sell for millions of dollars, they say.
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But both Fallows and Andreotti are skeptical: their teams have seen orcas here for years in the bay and it only ever had a temporary effect on great white numbers.
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Though the nature of the abuse and mistreatment is secondary to Wise's legal argument, these cases are likely dire ones—abuses against circus elephants and SeaWorld orcas are well-documented.
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The surprise appearance by the blubbery swimmer happened on the Campbell River in British Columbia, Canada, where a small group of people was out watching orcas in their natural habitat.
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One might argue that intelligence in orcas serves as a buffer for the stresses of living and performing in concrete tanks, but Marino said her team's findings revealed the opposite.
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The 2013 documentary Blackfish, which put SeaWorld's treatment of orcas under the spotlight, reignited public awareness of the cause and the entertainment company has faced increasing pressure to make changes.
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"These orcas have never lived in the wild and could not survive in oceans that include environmental concerns such as pollution and other man-made threats," the press release noted.
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A clever seal desperate for its life found an interesting escape route recently, using a few unsuspecting humans and their boat to seek refuge from a pod of hungry orcas.
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SeaWorld received a subpoena as a part of a federal probe from regulators investigating statements made by executives which include comments about the Blackfish documentary and the confinement of orcas.
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As much as I can imagine that a human swimmer might have big calves, we are supposed to be thinking of ORCAs, who give birth to some pretty big calves.
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As populations of fish die, their predators, like orcas, sea lions, or humpback whales move closer to the coasts, risking getting trapped in fishing lines and crab traps, NPR reported.
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One possible scenario is that the dearth of salmon coupled with the interference of engine noise, which can affect their immune system, too, deprives the orcas of a sufficient diet.
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Now, many groups and scientists are urging that four of the dams be removed to keep the fish from being lost — and with them, the orcas that survive on them.
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Using sound detection and artificial intelligence, the company said it can now detect orcas in real time and send messages to harbor managers to help them protect the endangered species.
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Orcas are the last link in a long food chain and are therefore among the most affected by this problem over the course of their 50 to 80 year lifespan.
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Killer Whales Eat Enormous Great White Shark in South AfricaImage: Fallows et al/PLOS OneIf you're afraid of sharks, well, this blog should convince you it's actually orcas you should avoid.
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Washington's resident orcas that feast exclusively on salmon are having less luck--the fish's numbers have significantly declined, and as its prey shrinks, so do orca populations in the Pacific Northwest.
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" In a statement issued through PETA, Cromwell said: "Orcas deserve a full life in the ocean, not a life sentence of swimming endless circles until they drop dead from the disease.
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"Stopped at some random beach along the coast of Baja to get a beer, and while eating lunch saw a group of Orcas out in the bay," Eastwood captioned the video.
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Orcas are among the most savage killers in the ocean, wrecking tiger sharks, seals, beaked whales—and probably one of the most infamous apex predators out there, the great white shark.
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In March, SeaWorld said it would stop breeding killer whales in captivity, but would still put on performances with orcas at its marine parks in San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio.
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"Most of SeaWorld's orcas were born in a zoological setting and the environmental threats in our oceans, like oil spills and pollution are huge dangers for these animals," the company said.
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Here, Tilikum is put into a tank with two other older and larger female orcas, Haida II and Nootka IV, leaving the male newcomer at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
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If the Bernie Sanders campaign searched the nation for its ideal microtarget, it might not find a more receptive audience than at Doe Bay Resort on idyllic Orcas Island in Washington.
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I had already began to personally question the ethics of keeping orcas (and really all animals) in captivity — let alone in a theme park environment where they are forced to perform.
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Along the way he takes care of some family business: His father, John Colby, helped to capture orcas for various operations, including Sea World, and has long felt tormented by it.
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But the company has promised that it will discontinue breeding its orcas and stop obtaining new ones, meaning that its current set is the last generation to be housed at SeaWorld.
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Warren Miller, a passionate skier and filmmaker whose movies introduced skiing and snowboarding to a wide audience, died on Wednesday at his home on Orcas Island in Puget Sound, near Seattle.
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Orcas circle the bay in search of unsuspecting sea lion pups, two trawler wrecks cling precariously to the rocky shore, and the cemetery's tombstones are engraved with German and Nordic surnames.
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Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a UK-based group, said Chimelong Ocean Kingdom possesses nine orcas, Shanghai Haichang Polar Ocean World has four and two more are at Wuxi Changqiao Ocean Kingdom.
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Annenberg said the mix of wilderness and voyeurism can act as a "bridge" between observing animals in captivity — a controversial practice, particularly for orcas — and watching them first-hand in the wild.
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Although I am heartbroken, I am grateful for the special time we had together and for the difference she has made for wild orcas by all that we have learned from her.
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As of now, NhRP is gearing up to file a personhood case on behalf of circus elephants, and it's looking into building a case for the orcas at SeaWorld in San Diego.
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The video shows a pod of orcas chasing a minke whale to the point of exhaustion (typical orca hunting behavior), and then drowning it and ripping it apart with their powerful jaws.
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There have been reports of cetaceans, the group that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises, mimicking other animals' sounds, so the researchers were interested in testing this kind of learning, scientifically, in orcas.
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"I am thrilled to see the wave of opposition build to where SeaWorld finally has done the right thing and ended their captive breeding program of orcas," he said in a statement.
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During one capture, when several orcas are corralled in a harbor, a thousand people show up to watch—"I was actually quite sad about the whole thing," one of the captors recalls.
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As virtually every article over the last few years has mentioned, she grew up on Orcas Island a small islet of the coast of Washington with a population of around 5,000 people.
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He said he hoped that policy makers would do more to help protect them, with the study helping to persuade them as well as the substantial appeal orcas have with the public.
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SeaWorld — which has long made theatrical orca shows a central attraction in its water parks — depicts orcas as peaceful animals that have only hurt humans in attempts to be playful with them.
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After the release of the documentary "Blackfish," the keeping of killer whales in captivity has come under increasing scrutiny, and the park has faced criticism following deaths of some of its orcas.
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For the Five, the start-up economy has turned into a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose proposition — they love start-ups, but in the same way that orcas love baby seals.
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On Location 8503 Photos View Slide Show ' While raising their daughter on rugged Orcas Island, Stacey Coleman and Shelley Kimball gave her treasure maps, rusty locks and eye patches to play with.
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That group of beneficiaries includes an endangered population of orcas, or killer whales, along the West Coast that survive by eating Chinook in the winter and spring, up to 30 a day.
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Cox introduced a motion to support the project with limitations on the number of orcas involved, voting ultimately to support an amended version calling for an end to SeaWorld's orca breeding program.
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Wan also manages to pull off a huge final war sequence — complete with nasty sea dragons, belligerent orcas, and the giant, kitschy crab army — that is somehow both giggle- and awe-inducing.
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The bill's author, Democratic Assemblyman Richard Bloom from Santa Monica, did leave space in the legislation for educational institutions with plans of rereleasing orcas the option to capture whales for research and rehabilitation.
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In the clip, Eastwood and a friend can be seen paddling in the middle of a body of water as two orcas — who are also known as killer whales —swim below their boat.
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Inbreeding, which also doesn't happen with orcas in nature, started becoming common: SeaWorld had a male, Taku, who bred with his own mother, Katina, resulting in the birth of a calf named Nalani.
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A stone's throw from shore and you're in the realm of orcas, humpback whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, octopuses, and countless other species that thrive in these clean, cold, nutrient-rich waters.
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LONGEST TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OF THE CENTURY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW The baby orca was the first calf born in three years to the endangered orcas, the Center for Whale Research said.
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There hasn't been a lot of study on the direct interactions between these two predators, though orcas do sometimes attack sharks, probably to feed on their nutrient-rich livers, as we've previously reported.
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Because they no longer capture orcas, this is really an announcement that they are getting out of the orca business a few decades from now when their captive population dies of old age.
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Since the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which suggested that captive orcas are more violent, neurotic and shorter-lived than their wild counterparts, SeaWorld has been under increasing pressure to end its "killer whale" program.
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After the California legislature passed the bill last month, the company said the measure tracked its March announcement that it would stop breeding orcas in California and end their participation in theatrical shows.
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The orcas would be able to "experience the currents and swim and dive and interact with other ocean animals," Jared Goodman, director of animal law for PETA, told the magazine at the time.
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Leadership analysis might give clues Russian defense minister: 'We won't do anything' in Europe unless US places missiles there MORE, urging the Russian president to abandon reported plans to hold orcas in captivity.
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What made Davidson and his fellow Eden whalers so unusual was their collaboration with a pod of killer whales, or orcas, each one recognizable by the nicks and scars on its dorsal fin.
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Mary ventures out in a whaleboat, rashly determined to save the family's fortunes by killing a whale, but ends up turning her gun on the orcas in order to save a whale calf.
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Washington state residents love and celebrate these iconic orcas, from the everyday "orcaholics" who follow their movements or build them monuments in Seattle to the experienced researchers who provide them comfort and aid.
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It is unknown whether the orcas will continue their killing spree but, for good measure, take my hand child, let us pray they never find out about their brethren we keep in captivity.
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"While there's no 'Blackfish' for the dolphins, it is essential that this report ... have the same impact that 'Blackfish' had on orcas," the film's director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, said at the PETA news conference.
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Photo: Towers et al (Scientific Reports 2018)A pair of orcas earned their "killer whale" moniker one late fall day in 2016 by committing the first act of orca infanticide ever captured on film.
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He's not an albino whale--he's more of a cloudy grey--but it's still unusual for orcas to be anything but black-and-white, a tool they use to camouflage themselves while stalking prey.
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Colleen O'Brien, vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said on Monday that it was time for SeaWorld to release the 22 orcas still housed at parks to seaside sanctuaries.
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Looking in one direction you might think you're in a nature documentary, with humpbacks and orcas, snow geese migrating past by the hundreds, and radio reports of sea otters, wolves, and deer coming in.
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Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, liked the new paper, telling Gizmodo it's a "solid scientific inquiry" that serves to strengthen ethical arguments against keeping orcas in marine parks and aquariums.
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My feelings about that came to include captive breeding, a topic about which SeaWorld's management and I disagreed, until I got their announcement that they were in fact ending captive breeding of their orcas.
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Yolanda Ceja was at Orcas Park in Lake View Terrace with her young sister and parents that evening when she and the little girl climbed onto the horse's back for a ride, KABC reports.
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And on the music front, there are the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and the Doe Bay Fest, both in August, and the Imagine Festival, which is focused mostly on electronic music, in September.
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"We will end all orca breeding programs — and because SeaWorld hasn't collected an orca from the wild in almost four decades, this will be the last generation of orcas in SeaWorld's care," he wrote.
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Unlike Herman Melville's fictional sea captain, Mr. Pitman's quest was aimed at answering scientific questions: Who are these orcas, how are they different from other killer whales and do they constitute a new species?
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"This is the first study to show that killer whales can make recognizable copies of human sounds," Dr. Abramson said, which is unexpected because orcas have very different anatomical structures for vocalization than us.
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A recent agreement to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which carries oil from Alberta to British Columbia, would multiply tanker traffic through the orcas' habitat and expose them to more noise and potential spills.
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While female orcas normally stop reproducing in their 30s and 40s, they can live for many decades following menopause, said the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.
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Illustration: Alex BoersmaToday, whales can be broadly lumped into two main groups: toothed whales, such as orcas and dolphins, and filter-feeding whales (or mysticeti), such as humpbacks, fin whales, blue whales, and minke whales.
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"The bill does allow for SeaWorld to rescue and rehabilitate stranded orcas, with the goal of returning them to the wild, as is the case with all animals we rescue," SeaWorld said in a statement.
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Scott says they thought the wild beasts had disappeared by the time they got out there -- but, apparently, some whale noises and splashing around made 2 orcas circle back ... and, boy, did they get close.
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This behavior is used for manifold purposes, for example, for presenting the animals to the public, for conducting corporal check-ups, for inspecting their blowholes, as well as for testing hearing abilities of the orcas.
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The third factor involves social stresses, and how orcas aren't able to forge normal relationships given the constant disruptions—especially disruptions that prevent proper bonding between mother and calf, which results in poor maternal care.
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First, as we know, dental pathology and the kinds of invasive treatments made necessary by it cause severe pain and distress and there is no reason to think this isn't the case in captive orcas.
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Second, dental pathology is associated with increased infection rate in all animals, including humans, so the poor dentition likely contributes to the rampant infectious pathologies seen in captive orcas and, by extension, the short lifespan.
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Following SeaWorld's announcement on Thursday that it's ending its orca breeding program, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wants the company to place its existing orcas in sea sanctuaries.
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" She added that some orcas "can be successfully transferred to sea pens that mimic their natural environments and potentially released back into their home waters, depending on the needs and abilities of each orca individually.
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Lack of food is the biggest threat to resident orcas, which occupy the area between Vancouver Island and northern Washington, according to Lance Barrett-Lennard, director of the marine mammal research program at Ocean Wise.
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The impact of grandma orcas was biggest in the years that salmon, the whales' main food source, were hard to find, suggesting these matriarchs' wisdom may have helped their grandkids find food in lean times.
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Whales have close-knit familiesAccording to Franks, the new research may reveal why orcas are one of only five known mammal species (including humans) that go through menopause and have a long post-reproductive lifespan.
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The group has been shrinking for decades — it had nearly 100 orcas in the mid-90s, and now has 75 — in large part because of a depletion of its main food source, the Chinook salmon.
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"No one objects to releasing the orcas, but the most important thing is to release them properly," he said, listing cold weather as one of the obstacles to freeing the whales without causing them any harm.
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From kayaking with orcas in British Columbia to exploring the fast-paced streets of enigmatic Ho Chi Minh City, I laced up my hiking boots and took my notebook and camera out to document the world.
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"During shows" was the quick answer, and before I could follow up with my impressive knowledge that orcas in the ocean swim up to 100 miles a day, the staff had moved on to other questions.
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Scientists have questioned the credibility of Pliny the Elder&aposs now 2,000-year-old account of orcas hunting whale calves near the Strait of Gibraltar, since those marine mammals aren&apost known to visit that area.
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Image: Hennie Otto/Marine Dynamics/Dyer Island Conservation TrustAs we've reported, there have been a few notable instances of orcas eating great white sharks before, like this 1997 orca-on-shark attack off the California coast.
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But given it can still make a few bucks out of running shows for the next three years, orcas be damned, while it busies itself creating a business model that's a little less shameful and cruel?
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I've been privileged to spend a day with some 60 orcas here, a week with wolves eating herring eggs from the beach, and I've had countless commutes delayed by unexpected encounters with whales, porpoises, and bears.
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"This paper clearly identifies the range and scope of the harms orcas face in captivity and eliminates any lingering question of orca captivity as being ethically justifiable," said Bowman, who wasn't involved with the new work.
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These "repeat after me" experiments between Wikie and her trainers were partially inspired by substantial evidence that wild orcas—and other cetaceans—speak in local dialects, suggesting that they learn their own marine language through imitation.
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Chinook salmon makes up the majority of the orcas' diet, but Barrett-Lennard says that chum salmon is a key food source in September and October and can make up for shortages in other salmon species.
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Go: Facing a birthday alone, our 52 Places traveler found an antidote to loneliness on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington State, where you can come face to face with the wild beauty of whales.
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But nowhere has taught me as much about solitude and loneliness — the difference between them and how quickly those emotions can swing — as Orcas Island, a speck of land off the coast of mainland Washington State.
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I found company in signing up for group activities, which allowed me to engage in small talk — something that, before this year, I never thought I'd miss — while also taking in the wild beauty of Orcas.
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These include suction cameras attached to the backs of whale sharks and orcas, probe cams for recording miniature marine life, and "tow cams" that are trailed behind filming craft to capture dolphins and predatory fish head-on.
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They then gathered data from various shark, killer whale, and elephant seal monitoring surveys at the Southeast Farallon Islands Their analysis revealed that the closer the orcas were to the islands, the fewer seals the sharks killed.
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Nathan Benge told the morning show that he was fishing for yellow-fin tuna with four others off the coast of San Diego recently when they spotted a pod of orcas swimming about a half-mile away.
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SeaWorld recently put an end to its captive orca breeding program, and in 2015, Ontario introduced new regulations banning the acquisition or breeding of orcas, leaving Marineland's Kiska as the last one in captivity in the province.
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A subsequent documentary, "Blackfish," about this episode and others, helped turn public opinion against SeaWorld for keeping orcas in captivity; last year, the company said it would phase out killer-whale performances and stop breeding the animals.
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The two orcas, which were released separately from the beluga whales, were "nervous" about their return to the wild and swam near to the shoreline for hours before finally heading out into the open sea, it said.
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Finally, back in late 2016, drones took this nightmarish footage of orca whales wrecking a shark:The real question, then, isn't whether orcas eat sharks (they do), but what's changed in Gansbaai to amp up the number of attacks.
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RAUSU, Japan (Reuters) - People packed the decks of the Japanese whale-watching boat, screaming in joy as a pod of orcas put on a show: splashing tails at each other, rolling over, and leaping out of the water.
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Clint Eastwood's son posted a video of himself out in the waters of Baja California Sur, where he says he and a pal stopped for lunch before paddling out to sea after hearing some orcas in the water.
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Bond's colleague, Rich Zabel, the fish ecology division director at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, agrees that the heat in the oceans where the salmon get strong and fat enough to breed -- and feed orcas -- is a factor.
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The public relations team at SeaWorld understands that its orcas are still very much tied to the documentary, and so it begins its statement about Tilikum ensuring its audience that the orca was treated as well as possible.
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Brown's decision to sign the bill was welcomed by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which had long lobbied for a ban on breeding orcas in captivity, and opposed the SeaWorld shows.
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Speaking of inconsistencies, it's worth noting that the cover of "Rush Oh!" depicts a sperm whale rather than one of the blue whales, humpbacks, right whales, finback whales and orcas that swim through the pages of Barrett's narrative.
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It may be because the grey whales were late migrating to the bay this year so the orcas were particularly hungry for their traditional meal of baby grey whale, or they may be teaching their young to hunt.
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If we aren't willing to turn our empathy into action, then one day in the near future we will explain to our children and grandchildren how incredible the orcas were, and how bad we felt about their fate.
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Orcas face other threats directly related to the pipeline: collisions with vessels (oil tanker ships are expected to increase sevenfold with the pipeline expansion), a reduced ability to echolocate because of vessel noise, and contamination from oil spills.
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The video is the first in a forthcoming series of Cohort videos called "The Last Orcas," inspired by Japanese designer and hip-hop pioneer Fujiwara Hiroshi's tastemaking "Last Orgy" columns and subsequent "Last Orgy 2" collaboration with Bape.
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Some activists have called for SeaWorld to release the more than 20 orcas it keeps at its three parks into coastal sanctuaries, but the company contends that whales born or raised in captivity would likely die in the wild.
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"When orcas die in marine parks and aquariums the response by the facilities is often one of being confounded or stunned," Lori Marino, the lead author of the study and a biologist at the Whale Sanctuary Project, told Gizmodo.
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Winfrey also owns other properties, including a 43-acre Orcas Island, Washington compound she purchased for $8.3 million; a $14 million home and separate property in Telluride, Colorado; and a 163-acre ranch on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
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It includes details from his capture — off the coast of Iceland — and focuses on several incidents where several other captive orcas ganged up on him, when the animals were being held together in a 20-by-30-foot pool.
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Pearson says that salmon populations, and the orcas that rely on them as as a food source, could be at risk in the future if other streams receive the same treatment if the pipeline expansion gets the go-ahead.
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The plight of orcas in the Pacific Northwest is illustrative of the dangers they face in parts of the world: dwindling food supplies; human activities like shipping crowding their habitats; and pollution making them sick and leading to miscarriages.
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The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the killer whales, also known as orcas, were from an extremely endangered population that frequented the Salish Sea in southwestern Canada and northwestern Washington state daily in the summer months.
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A pod of five killer whales, or orcas, arrived off the port of Genoa, in northern Italy, at the start of December, and marine biologists soon identified them as originating from Iceland — more than 5,200 km (3,230 miles) away.
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Rerouting river water would also devastate the regional ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay Delta, scientists say, imperiling dozens of other fish up the food chain and affecting water birds, orcas and commercial fisheries and encouraging toxic algal blooms.
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Eleven orcas (killer whales) and about 90 white whales, caught in the summer and fall of 2018, remain detained in cramped enclosures in Srednyaya Bay, though Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the case to be resolved by March 1.
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Which isn't that tricky if you're trying to film a spider rolling up a fly into a little ball, perhaps, but it's a very different kettle of orcas when you're talking about large animals careening along the savannah at 55 mph.
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According to the Guardian, Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition executive director Joseph Bogaard says both orcas and wild salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest are being devastated by pesticides, with salmon hovering around five to six percent of historic population size.
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RAUSU, Japan, July 9 (Reuters) - People packed the decks of the Japanese whale-watching boat, screaming in joy as a pod of orcas put on a show: splashing tails at each other, rolling over, and leaping out of the water.
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Ford studies the teeth of wild orca whales, of which there are three main varieties: resident (coastal killer whales that subsist primarily on fish), transient (coastal whales that eat marine mammals), and offshore (deep sea orcas that feed on schooling fish).
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He became well known for his ability to source difficult-to-acquire species like elephants, orcas, rhinos, and polar bears, and business only grew as the internet gained popularity, allowing him to connect with exporters and clients in 217 countries.
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Six beluga and two killer whales were being transported on Thursday, part of a four-month operation to return all of the orcas to their natural habitat, a report aired during President Vladimir Putin's televised annual question and answer said.
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In a segment dedicated to the plight of the mammals, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev said that the orcas would be taken back to where they were caught, something campaigners had insisted upon, and released within four months in small groups.
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If you want a taste of one of the uninhabited islands, book a charter excursion to Sucia Island, which is just a few miles north of Orcas and has more than 10 miles of hiking paths, along with places to camp.
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"As a longtime fan of your advocacy for wildlife, it upset me deeply to learn that Russia is considering a plan to abduct 85033 orcas and an untold number of beluga whales from their families in the wild," Anderson, 50, wrote.
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Not only did the orcas — Tom, Hooky, Humpy, Jackson and Typee — alert the whalers to the humpbacks and right whales swimming by on their annual migration, they herded them into the bay to be killed, even assisting in the slaughter.
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As Scientific American once pointed out, orcas (Orcinus orca), which biologists long-believed to be a singular type of whale, have actually been branching off for hundreds of thousands of years into distinct species with their own traits and traditions.
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The recent agreement between the Canadian government and Kinder Morgan to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline would multiply oil tanker traffic through the orcas' habitat by seven times, according to some estimates, and expose them to excessive noise and potential spills.
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But the important thing to note is that, whether accurate or not, the movie planted the idea that keeping orcas captive makes them hyper aggressive, and thus captivity is both cruel to the animals and unsafe for humans around them.
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The biologist, Mike Pearson, says the work is a warning sign of what might happen with future pipeline developments, and could have greater downstream impacts on other wildlife, such as orcas, if Trans Mountain adopts similar methods for other stream systems.
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The movement of the first batch of two orcas and six belugas was first broadcast during Mr. Putin's annual call-in show on Thursday, highlighting his role as a modern, televised czar, ready to solve any issue, big or small.
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Perhaps it's because of the stops that led up to my visit — picture-perfect Lyon and Munich, the sparkling architecture of Dessau and pristine hiking trails of Orcas Island — but Marseille had the chaotic energy I didn't know I needed.
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While many other species can make tools or communicate in some form of language, only a select few—great apes, dolphins, orcas, elephants, and the Eurasian magpie—have demonstrated the self-awareness to recognize their own reflection in a mirror.
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Oprah Winfrey, who's currently worth $2.9 billion according to Forbes, just dropped $8.275 million on a secluded, 43-acre compound on Washington state's Orcas Island, one of the largest islands in the San Juan Islands archipelago between Seattle and Vancouver.
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He now lives most of his life on a small Island called Orcas off the coast of Washington State, on five Walt Whitman acres that are only accessible by 4x4 via a bumpy dirt path that just about cuts through densely packed trees.
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SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - SeaWorld said on Thursday it will stop breeding killer whales in captivity, bowing to years of pressure from animal rights activists, but the orcas already at its three parks will continue performing as they live out their remaining years.
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Under the new plan the orcas will still be shown to visitors at set times, but viewing areas will be reconfigured to "reflect the natural world" with a program focusing on "orca enrichment, exercise and overall health," according to the SeaWorld website.
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SeaWorld announced in November that it would phase out its San Diego killer whale performance this year, but it went further on Thursday, declaring that the orcas in its care would be the last generation of killer whales at its theme parks.
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Moscow (CNN)Russian prosecutors in the far eastern city of Vladivostok are investigating the capture of beluga whales and orcas after reports emerged of marine mammals penned inside what some have dubbed a "whale jail," Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday.
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A report in the Alaska Dispatch News this week has shone a light on the rise of killer whale "depredation"—that's fishing parlance for when a catch is plundered, in this case by orcas—and how it is affecting the lives of fishermen.
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" Hubbard hardly ever seems reluctant to talk about nearly anything: about how ski movie pioneer Warren Miller sought him out to build the Scott Stames Memorial Skatepark on Orcas Island, Washington, because Miller wanted the "guy who lived and worked from his truck.
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Their black-and-white coloration quickly identified them as killer whales (which are members of the dolphin family), but their snub noses, narrow, pointy fins and small patches of white near their eyes made it clear that these were not typical orcas.
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We've also come across mating leatherback turtles (awesome, but not so sexy), orcas and manta rays in the Galápagos Islands, a huge tiger shark in Moorea and fields of tiny eels peeking out of their holes on the sandy seafloor in Palau.
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Hiking is the main activity on Orcas and between the more than 30 miles of trails in Moran State Park, and shorter hikes at hidden gems like Obstruction Pass State Park, you can do a hike a day and not get bored.
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"The probability that the orcas in Messina are the same as the ones spotted in Genoa is high, but we would need some clear pictures to be sure", said Clara Monaco, a marine biologist and the scientific director of the Marecamp association.
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"How deeply ironic that this research, which speaks volumes of the emotional intelligence of orcas, was conducted in a marine park's cement cell, where they're imprisoned and denied everything that's natural and important to them in order to make money from tourists," Allen continues.
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The statement did not specify the type of bacteria that killed the orca, making it difficult to determine whether or not it is more likely to infect orcas in the wild or in captivity, and it misled readers with regards to the animal's age.
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It was evident from his proposal to expand offshore oil drilling into all U.S. oceans, attempts to revoke protections for the Arctic and marine monuments, abandonment of the Paris climate accord, and ignoring legal obligations to protect West Coast orcas and other endangered marine species.
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We also shouldn't forget that in November 2015, a California congressman filed a federal bill to prohibit the captive breeding and wild capture of orcas, or that Tilikum, the orca who has been the park's primary source of whale sperm for decades, is reportedly dying.
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MOSCOW — Russia on Thursday started the process of releasing almost 100 valuable orcas and belugas that have been held for months in what became known as the "whale jail" in the country's Far East, following an international outcry and intervention by President Vladimir V. Putin.
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This study takes it a step further, providing "gold-standard, controlled experimental evidence" that orcas can learn fresh sounds through imitation, said Luke Rendell, a cetacean and social learning researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who was not involved in the work.
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Images of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales, kept in enclosures in a bay near the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka, first appeared after they were caught last summer by firms which planned to sell them to marine parks or aquariums in China.
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"The best thing you could do to get more spring Chinook for the orcas is to remove those four lower dams," said Don Chapman, a retired fisheries scientist who worked as a consultant to the hydropower industry and defended the dams and mitigation efforts.
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"This is the first ever record of orcas migrating between Iceland and Italy in killer whale research history, and, we believe, at over 5,200 km, one of the longest migration routes ever recorded in the world to date," the Orca Guardians association in Iceland said.
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The Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington maintains the world's largest collection of frozen exotic-animal milk, from mammals large (orcas) and small (critically endangered fruit bats), in order to help researchers figure out how to nourish the most vulnerable members of any species: babies.
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I noticed one at last when the blinding white of the ice, struck up against an abidingly black ocean, made me understand at last why the penguins all around me and the orcas occasionally surfacing a few dozen feet away had the same basic color scheme.
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"Orcas have always had their own complex means of communicating with each other using a language that humans can't understand, and it's now been shown that in captivity, they try to get our attention by carefully mimicking human speech," Elisa Allen from PETA said at the time.
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They can help scientists understand orcas in the wild, wrote Luke Rendell, Lecturer in Biology at the University of St Andrews, for The Conversation:The evidence that killer whales can show vocal learning provides us with a missing piece of understanding about their lives in the wild.
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I "felt the bern" Orcas-style inside the resort's 102-degree soaking hot tubs on a recent visit, and wondered if I'd slipped off the map and into a kind of Ecotopia, filled with dense forests, rolling hills and naked people of all shapes and sizes.
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I did a bit of hiking at Moran State Park on Orcas but I was mostly content to lounge around in Doe Bay's soaking tubs, walk the trails in the area and eat the kind of ridiculously healthy vegetarian fare I rarely consider ordering on the mainland.
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Environmentalists say the impact on endangered orcas represents a violation of Canada's Species at Risk Act; in an email to the New Republic, Kinder-Morgan notes that the government is requiring it to develop a Marine Mammal Protection Program to mitigate the potential threat to whales.
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Last month, officials and executives from both cities huddled in a Vancouver hotel to discuss how to enable people, ideas and capital to flow more freely between them, as heedless of the international border separating the cities as a pod of orcas swimming in the sea.
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The company, which operates SeaWorld theme parks in Florida, Texas and California, has been working to stabilize its business after drops in attendance in 2014 amid a shift in American attitudes on the confinement and treatment of orcas, the killer whales that once were the parks' core attraction.
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As a lawyer, he has challenged tighter U.S. financial regulations, a rule that forced energy companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments, and an order that required more distance between orcas, or killer whales, and humans after the death of a marine life trainer at SeaWorld Entertainment.
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Since whales living in captivity aren't capable of surviving in the wild, these sanctuaries would provide a home that resembles the orcas' natural habitat, where the animals would be given expansive spaces to swim, the chance to interact with other whales and freedom from being forced to perform.
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They also recorded huge tracts of mud and soil from where ice shelves had collapsed into the ocean, polar bears looking for ice shelves to hunt seals much farther North than they're typically found, and orcas immigrating from other seas using the newly opened Northwest Passage to hunt narwhals.
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Pollution is also an issue—including pesticides found in the salmon the orcas devour at a rate of 30 or so a day, when they can get them—and a new pipeline project starting in August could further expose them to more threats, such as oil spills and tanker noise.
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Animal advocates openly argue that the changes are not enough to satisfy the intelligent creatures, who swim dozens of miles a day in the wild, and that all of SeaWorld's orcas should stop being used for breeding and get to live out the rest of their lives in sea sanctuaries.
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While CEO Joel Manby claims that these human-raised orcas "could not survive in oceans to compete for food, be exposed to unfamiliar diseases or to have to deal with environmental concerns — including pollution and other man-made threats," independent experts say the open ocean is not the only answer.
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Normally four or five calves would be born each year among this fairly unusual urban population of whales — pods named J, K and L. But most recently, the number of orcas here has dwindled to just 230, a 285-year low in what seems to be an inexorable, perplexing decline.
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That's according to a new study, published in the journal Science, which found that killer whales, or orcas, are most at risk from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were once widely used as coolants and in the production of carbonless copy paper before they were found to be highly toxic and carcinogenic.
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"Orcas have always had their own complex means of communicating with each other using a language that humans can't understand, and it's now been shown that in captivity, they try to get our attention by carefully mimicking human speech," Elisa Allen, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement.
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The mother, preventing the body from sinking to the ocean floor, has been carrying it and nudging it toward the surface of the Pacific off the coast of Canada and the northwestern US. Orcas, also called killer whales, are highly social, and this pod was spotted Friday afternoon near Vancouver, British Columbia.
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Viewers of the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which exposed dangerous conditions for trainers and inhumane conditions for orcas at SeaWorld (and the psychological damage that animals suffered as a result), will likely feel this is deserved—and the film has been at least partially responsible for its languishing numbers over the past five years.
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Letter To the Editor: Re "Starvation and Habitat Threats Stalk Killer Whales" (Science Times, July 10): While we disagree with the suggestion that Sea World potentially contributed to the decline of orcas, we appreciate the opportunity to bring the plight these animals face in the wild to the forefront of public discussion.
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See Why His Art Still Matters" Sam Marks on "Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution by U.S. Stuns World Health Officials" Rebecca Michelson on "Orcas of the Pacific Northwest Are Starving and Disappearing" Mikayla on "Why Your Brain Tricks You Into Doing Less Important Tasks" Isabelle Rosado on "Do You Like Your Name?
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Tilikum has also been connected with the deaths of two other people: Keltie Byrne, a 21-year-old student and part-time trainer who slipped into a pool containing Tilikum and two other orcas in 1991, and Daniel P. Dukes, a 27-year-old man who slipped into SeaWorld after hours in 1999.
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"As soon as you get on that boat a weight lifts from your shoulders," said Bruce Pavitt, the founder of the Sub Pop record label, who has lived on Orcas since 1997 and now commutes to Seattle regularly for his new job at 8Stem, an interactive audio format that allows listeners to remix music.
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The whale has also been involved in the deaths of two other people: Keltie Byrne, a 21-year-old student and part-time trainer who slipped into a pool containing Tilikum and two other orcas in 1991, and Daniel P. Dukes, a 27-year-old man who slipped into SeaWorld after hours in 1999.
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I listened intently about how we should be sure to say "environment" instead of "tank" and "behaviors" instead of "tricks" and how dorsal-fin collapse was "perfectly normal in orcas and happens in nature all the time" (which, I later learned, isn't true) I memorized my notes, but a nagging feeling pricked in the back of my mind.
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"But our study suggests that dolphins and orcas (who also have a long post fertility life span) are similar to humans in many ways; they have an insulin signalling system that makes them an interesting model of diabetes, and now we have shown that dolphin brains show signs of Alzheimer's identical to those seen in people," said Lovestone.
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Killer Whales Eat Enormous Great White Shark in South AfricaIf you're afraid of sharks, well, this blog should convince you it's actually orcas you should…Read more ReadThe Dyer Island Conservation Trust, a South African conservation program, was called in to investigate a shark carcass, or as I will call it, a sharkass, that washed ashore this past weekend.
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"For decades, orcas, dolphins, beluga whales, seals and many other animals have suffered in SeaWorld confinement, and, to do right by them now, SeaWorld must open the tanks to ocean sanctuaries so that these long-suffering animals may have some semblance of a life outside their prison tanks," the group's president, Ingrid E. Newkirk, said in a statement.
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In case you needed a refresher on where things got dark for the chain, Blackfish exposed the conditions of its sea animals in captivity, suggesting that the separation of young orcas from their parents caused the kind of extreme stress that led killer whales like its prized bull Tilikum to attack, and ultimately kill, SeaWorld trainers.
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In the wake of that 2013 documentary — which investigated the disturbing impact of captivity on orcas at Sea World and other marine parks — attendance dropped at these establishments, the Sea World chief executive stepped down and many of us arrived at a keener understanding of how these animals are compromised by being cooped up in tanks.
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La imagen se volvió viral, pero algunos expertos lamentan que eso no haya llevado a reflexionar sobre cómo la misma humanidad es la que más ha afectado el hábitat de este animal, a tal punto que en el estrecho de Puget, Washington, las orcas no han podido dar a luz a una cría sana en tres años.
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By the fireplace in a countryside bar in Norway with a glass of citrusy traditional kveik beer; under an immaculately manicured tree, lost in a feudal-era park in the Japanese city of Takamatsu; on the front porch of the farmhouse where I stayed on Orcas Island, listening to the competing conversations of ducks, geese and turkeys.
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Read more about animals: You can now buy a 20-mile-long island filled with thousands of penguins Stunning drone footage shows orcas surrounding a woman swimming off the coast of New Zealand Meet Lil' Bill, a tiny bull that's the size of a cat The super-buff Kangaroo named Roger that went viral online in 2015 has died at age 12
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Not wanting to let its body sink to the ocean floor, she nudged it toward the surface as she made her way through the Pacific, off the coast of Canada and the northwestern US. Lack of salmon is killing orcas One of the problems affecting whales is the lack of salmon, their main source of food due to overfishing for commercial consumption.
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En enero, después de varios reportes de pescadores chilenos de que orcas raras les estaban robando su presa, un grupo de científicos se apresuró a meterse al oceáno cerca de cabo de Hornos para tomar video y conseguir muestras de piel de las ballenas, con el fin de confirmar si pertenecen a una subespecie tipo D, que se consideraba un mito [en inglés].
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The orca population is also slowly decreasing in number there due to other factors, including fewer births (not a single calf has been born in the area in three years), a weakened gene pool that&aposs partly due to companies like Sea World taking dozens of orcas out of circulation, and possibly even as part of an overall "marine ecosystem in collapse," per the Times .
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Researchers have identified a couple of other examples of human-wild animal cooperation: fishermen in Brazil who work with bottlenose dolphins to maximize the number of mullets swept into nets or snatched up by dolphin mouths, and orcas that helped whalers finish off harpooned baleen giants by pulling down the cables and drowning the whales, all for the reward from the humans of a massive whale tongue.
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Read more travel stories: You can visit Westeros in a new immersive 'Game of Thrones' exhibition opening in Northern Ireland next year Stunning drone footage shows orcas surrounding a woman swimming off the coast of New Zealand You can now have lunch at Rory and Lorelai's house from 'Gilmore Girls' and even get a photo opp in the show's famous gazebo Visit INSIDER's homepagefor more.
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The discovery was published today (July 10) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In the first century A.D., Pliny the Elder famously wrote about orcas (also called killer whales, though they are in the dolphin family) attacking whales and their calves in the Bay of Cádiz, near the Strait of Gibraltar — the entry point from the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean that lies between Africa and Europe.
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Twenty-four nations and the European Union agreed unanimously to declare the Ross Sea in Antarctica an official Marine Protected Area after negotiations brokered by the UN's Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources According to the UN, 50% of ecotype-C killer whales (the smallest of the four types of Southern Hemisphere orcas), 40% of Adelie penguins and 25% of emperor penguins live in the area covered by the new park.
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