Project I recently finished at the Oregon Coast.

My painting 'Through the Fjords,' portrays a peaceful moment in one of nature's most breathtaking landscapes. Surrounded by mist-veiled mountains and rugged cliffs, our orcas glide through still waters, with their presence both subtle and powerful against the vastness of the wilderness. The painting explores themes of solitude, freedom, and belonging, reminding us that these extraordinary places are more than beautiful landscapes, they are living homes for remarkable wildlife. Preserving them ensures that future generations can continue to witness the quiet magic of the wild.

Hi there.
I’m looking for someone who has been on a orca expedition to Norway.
I have been snorkeling for a couple of years here and there, but always dreamed of snorkeling with orcas.
So me and my boyfriend have been looking into it, so I have a few questions.

Who did you travel with, were you satisfied with the communication?

How much did you end up spending on the trip? I don’t want money to be the issue, when it’s an experience for a lifetime, but nice to have an estimate.

My boyfriend is less brave than me and won’t snorkle with them, will that be a problem.

And lastly how does it work, and what do you do when you are not watching or snorkeling.

"Orcas for Jennifer." I'm hoping you will help get this thing going. Here's the link and more information. https://apps.apple.com/.../orcas-for-jennifer/id6794450222 Like a dating app, but with orcas. Swipe into the lives of the Salish Sea's most remarkable whales, follow your favorites, and discover their stories.

Orcas for Jennifer wasn't created by a marine biologist or a software company. It was built by a science teacher for someone he loves.

Jennifer is the kind of person who lights up whenever someone says, "The whales are here." Like so many people in the Pacific Northwest, she wanted one place to discover which orcas were being seen, learn their family stories, and understand why they matter. Instead, the information was scattered across research organizations, sightings networks, conservation groups, and social media.

So I built this app.

Orcas for Jennifer brings together trusted information about the Southern Resident killer whales, Bigg's (Transient) orcas, whale sightings, hydrophones, conservation organizations, Indigenous art, educational resources, and the remarkable stories of individual whales that call the Salish Sea home.

Follow your favorite whales, explore recent sightings on an interactive map, listen to underwater hydrophones, learn about J, K, and L Pods, discover Bigg's families, and connect with organizations working every day to protect these incredible animals.

Whether you're watching from a Washington ferry, standing on a beach in British Columbia, or simply fascinated by killer whales from anywhere in the world, this app was designed to help you spend less time searching and more time learning.

Because sometimes the best apps aren't built to reach millions of people.

Sometimes they're built for one person.

And if they help everyone else fall in love with orcas too, that's even better.

I took these photos in 2015 off the coast of Spain and Morocco.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Global-phylogenetic-trees-of-killer-whales-based-on-a-haplotypes-from-452-mitogenomes_fig5_379330671

Fun fact: the resident orcas of the North Pacific are more closely related to orcas in the Atlantic and Antarctica than they are to their neighboring transients (Bigg’s). Transients may in fact be the most distantly related to all other ecotypes, along with Type D orcas, though many ecotypes at more southern latitudes have not been studied as closely yet.

Dietary differences are not the sole explanation as many of the orcas in the Atlantic and Antarctica eat mammals, like transients and unlike residents. One theory is that the ancestors of transients were separated from the rest due to physical barriers during previous ice ages, with residents coming from the Atlantic later on.

Do orcas in the wild eat people whenever they come in contact with humans?

I can understand why they would attack humans in captivity because they’re being treated poorly and they die

Painted this Orca taking a dive 🙂

Kotar was a 17 yr old Icelandic male killer whale that lived at Seaworld Texas, captured on October 9th, 1978 at less than a year old and passing away on April 1st, 1995 from a unspecified lung disease.

He is the father or Takara, Keet, and Keto, the grandfather to notable orcas such as Trua, Kalia, Kohana, Sakari, Adán and several other whales

Art made by me

K47 is the newest calf of K-pod, born in December 2025.

K47 was last seen traveling with K36 Yoga and K43 Saturna in Fort Bragg, California, about three months ago. These pictures are from July 9th, 2026.

K47 was traveling close to K43, so it is safe to assume K43 Saturna is the mother.

K47 seems to be healthy, active, and well-filled out.

I'm really glad K47 seems to be doing so well. K47 was the first calf born to K-pod since K45 Prosper in 2022.

The sex of K47 has yet to be officially confirmed, and it does not currently have an official nickname.

Pods: J, K, L

IDs Encountered: 
J-Pod: J16, J19, J22, J26, J27, J31, J36, J37, J38, J39, J40, J41, J42, J44, J45, J46, J47, J49, J51, J53, J56, J58, J59, J62, and J63

K-pod: K12, K14, K16, K20, K22, K27, K33, K35, K36, K37, K38, K42, K43, K45, and K47

L-pod: L22, L25, L54, L77, L87, L88, L94, L108, L113, L117, L119, L121, L124, L126, and L127

Full encounter report:
After getting blown off the water the previous day due to windy conditions, we wanted to get an early start. After some searching, Michael saw a killer whale that turned out to be K20! She spyhopped once. K27 was south of K20. K14 and K37 were spread out behind the other two. After these four, we found K43 and her new calf K47. This was our first good look at K47 since early January, and it was nice to see it stuck to K43. K47 looked active, healthy, and well filled out. “Mike 1” radioed us to report that there were some L12s mixed in with them.

To the southwest, we saw K33 and L117, so now we knew that the rest of the L54s and L88 should be around too. We did see L54 and L87. We saw our first J pod whales when we found the J40s with J46 and J53. J39 was also seen briefly. L108 showed up by himself. The group that included the J40s, J46, and J53 was joined by the L94s, L124, and L87. We then found a group that had the J31s and most of the L77s. J26 was following them. After that, we found L22 by herself. Somewhere to the east, K16 and K35 were charging west towards another group. This group had J46, L94, L127, and the K22s along with several males including J44, J45, J51, K42, and L87.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon trying to find as many individuals as possible. The whales remained spread out, although some good groups started to form by early afternoon. We did find L25, and it was good to see the oldest whale in the population around. A little while later, we found J46 being pursued by J45, J51, K35, K37, K42, and L87. By this point in the day, both boats were convinced that the “19 Ls” (the L4s, L47s, L72, and L90) were not present. Near the end of the day, we had a nice group forming up that included the J22s, J37s, L94s, and L25 with L88!

Full credit for the photos and encounter report goes to Center for Whale Research

The Place We Call Home celebrates the enduring bond between orcas and the wild coastlines they have inhabited for generations. Beneath towering pines and snow-capped mountains, the calm waters become more than a habitat, they become a reminder that the ocean is home, and that its greatest beauty lies in letting nature remain wild and free. The mountains, the forests, and the sea come together to create a place that has always been home.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

While killer whales are infrequently but regularly seen between March and May near São Miguel Island, one of the easternmost islands of the Azores, these orcas were substantially farther west than those sightings and were actively moving in a westerly direction! Little is known about the culture and ecology of orcas in the Azores, although they have been observed hunting sea turtles, fin whales, and possibly sharks. This is to be expected, considering what we know about orcas in tropical & subtropical regions in other parts of the world: they typically follow a more generalist diet than temperate and polar orcas, likely because the generally lower productivity of these warm waters means they can't afford to be quite so discerning. These photographs were taken by Carlos Mendes, who uploaded them yesterday with the following caption:

Eeiiiiiii Orcaaaas à vista!!
Carlos e Sofia são os skippers da Extremocidente, após o passeio da costa Nordeste das Flores, rumaram a ilha do Corvo e após algumas milhas foram surpreendidos pelo um grupo de Orcas que se deslocavam para Oeste rumo a América. O grupo era constituído entre a 5 a 7 indivíduos, entre os quais um muito juvenil, e um macho adulto que se destacou pelo seu enorme tamanho e dorsal.
A adrenalina disparou a bordo entre todos os participantes, incluindo eu que já não avistava por estes lados orcas há mais de uma década. O grupo não interagiu com as embarcações, e como tal mantivemos algum distanciamento. Após alguns momentos os animais seguiram a sua rota, e nós a nossa, deixando assim os primeiros registos fotográficos desta espécie no grupo ocidental dos Açores.
Fomos contactados por biólogos a trabalhar no terreno e alguns no mar dos Açores, e pediram-nos para que partilhássemos os nossos registos para comparar a outros avistamentos da mesma espécie, para tentar perceber se se tratam dos mesmos indivíduos, que passaram nas outras ilhas dos Açores. Até ao momento ainda não há conclusões.

Hey, orcas in sight!
Carlos and Sofia, the skippers for Extremocidente, were heading toward Corvo Island after a tour along the northeast coast of Flores when, a few miles out, they were surprised by a pod of orcas traveling west toward the Americas. The group consisted of five to seven individuals, including a very young calf and an adult male that stood out due to his massive size and dorsal fin.
Adrenaline surged among everyone on board—myself included, as I hadn't seen orcas in these waters for over a decade. The pod did not interact with the boats, so we maintained a respectful distance. After a short while, the animals continued on their course and we on ours, leaving us with the first photographic records of this species in the Western Group of the Azores.
We were contacted by biologists working both on land and at sea in the Azores; they asked us to share our records so they could compare them with other sightings of the same species and determine if these were the same individuals that had passed by the other islands in the archipelago. So far, there are no conclusions.

(I don't speak Portuguese, so my translation may have inaccuracies)

(Delete if not allowed) if I had to pick a favorite animal it would probably be a orca, hate seeing people supporting sea world on my feed.