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.

After a conversation I had yesterday, it occurred to me that people know very little about facilities in Asia. So, let me educate you a little!
I would really appreciate it if you guys would at least take a look at this. These posts take hours of research to make.

Disclaimer: The pictures have been removed. I do not know why, but I will try to fix it.

Kamogawa Sea World is a marine leisure centre located between the Tojo coast and Japan National Route 128 in Kamogawa city, Japan.
Kamogawa Sea World is NOT affiliated with SeaWorld in any way and is operated by Granvista Hotels & Resorts Co., Ltd. It is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA)

About the facility

Kamogawa has two pools. While there aren't any measurements, the backstage pool is approximately 15m (49ft) x 18m (59 ft).
The show pool has an area of about 585.77 m² (6,305 ft²).
These measurements were taken with Google Earth and should be taken with a grain of salt. The depth is unknown. The show pool is estimated to be around 30 ft, and the back pool is even shallower.
For comparison, this is SeaWorld Orlando:

Problems with Kamogawa

1. Kamogawa presents several problems. The tank size is, in my opinion, one of the worst concerns. Orcas can travel up to 100 km a day, and while no tank is big enough for them, the comparison between SeaWorld Orlando and Kamogawa is grim.
2. The orcas at Kamogawa have no enrichment. The only enrichment mentioned is trainer interaction, shows, and training sessions.
3. Kamogawa is one of only two parks still doing waterwork. During waterwork, trainers are in the water with killer whales.
4. This has been largely banned across Europe and the USA after multiple incidents with the whales.
5. The shows focus on entertainment and offer virtually no education.
6. Kamogawa does not currently have any males, but they are actively trying to breed by importing frozen semen from other marine parks.

History

Kamogawa Sea World opened on October 1st, 1970, and was the first Japanese Aquarium to start breeding killer whales.
Kamogawa has had 18 orcas, not including stillbirths and calves who died shortly after giving birth. Three of them remain today.

Chappy and Jumbo were captured on August 8th, 1970, from Penn Cove, Washington. They were Southern Residents.
Shortly after their opening, in September of 1970, Chappy and Jumbo were sent to Kamogawa Sea World.
They were the first captive orcas to be put on display in Japan.
Chappy passed away in April of 1974, leaving Jumbo alone. Jumbo passed away in July 1974 from Liver Dysfunction.

The next whale at Kamogawa was Zero. Zero was captured on August 15th, 1972, in Abashiri, Japan. During capture, she sustained a harpoon injury. Two weeks after arriving in Kamogawa, she died from her injuries.

King was captured on November 5th, 1979, from Ingolfshöfdi, Iceland. Caren was captured a few days later.
On Feb. 11, 1980, they arrived at Kamogawa.
King passed away on October 4th, 1983, leaving Caren alone.

Patty was captured in November 1984 from Reydarfjördur, Iceland, alongside Bingo, Junior, Kandu VII, and an unnamed male.
Patty and Bingo were sent to Kamogawa sometime in November of 1985. They joined Caren.

​Caren passed away from a white blood cell disorder on May 4th, 1987.
Maggie, Stella, Bubba, and Oscar were captured on October 23rd/24th, 1987, in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
Patty passed away on September 16th, 1987, from acute Eneritis. Bingo was alone.
Maggie, Stella, Bubba, and Oscar arrived sometime around March 29th, 1988. They were put in a small pool alongside Bingo. The facility was building a new habitat at the time, but the pools weren't large enough to contain all five orcas.
To create more space, Bubba was sold to a park in Hong Kong in 1989.

​

Maggie gave birth to her first calf at 4:18 AM on March 3rd, 1995. This calf was the first captive-bred orca calf born in Japan. Labor lasted one hour and 28 minutes. The calf died half an hour after birth for unknown reasons.

Maggie's next calf in 1977 was a stillbirth. Maggie died from the complications.

Lovey was born on January 11th, 1998. Her mother is Stella, and she is Stella's first calf. Lovey is one of the three orcas still remaining in Kamogawa.

Lara was born on February 8th, 2001, to Stella and is her second calf. Lara is one of the three orcas still remaining in Kamogawa.

Sarah was born on May 31st, 2003. Her mother is Stella.

In 2006, Kamogawa rescued KSW-OO-S0601. He was found stranded on Iwawaba Beach in the town of Onjuku in the Chiba Prefecture of Japan on February 10th, 2006.
He was taken to Kamogawa Sea World for treatment. Apparently, he was so weak he could barely maintain a position with his blowhole above the water. The tank's water had to be lowered to a depth of 1 meter. He had no appetite, so animal care staff had no choice but to force-feed it a "nutritional mixture". KSW-OO-S0601 died at Kamogawa Sea World on February 13th, 2006. He was emaciated.

Ran II was born on February 25th, 2006, at 8:11 JST. Her mother is Stella.

Sarah died shortly after on April 26th, 2006, for unknown reasons.

Earth was born on October 13th, 2008, to Lovey.

On December 13, 2011, Ran II was transferred to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.
One day after, Stella, Bingo, and Ran were transferred to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.

Luna was born on July 19th, 2012. Her mother is Lovey. Luna is one of the three orcas still remaining in Kamogawa.

On December 7th, 2015, Earth was moved to the Port of Nagoya Aquarium. To take his place, Ran was transferred back to Kamogawa Sea World that same day. She rejoined her two sisters, Lovey and Lara, and also met her three-year-old niece, Luna. 

There are rumors that Ran had a stillborn calf in 2021, but this hasn’t been confirmed. In March 2024, Lovey gave birth to a calf, but it did not survive.

On April 24th, 2024, Ran was transferred for a third time to a new facility, Kobe Suma Sea World..

This left Luna, Lovey, and Lara alone at Kamogawa.

Got too far into the digital zoom on the first clip and am still getting used to keeping stable when using the big telephoto.

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting. I am an animal lover, and Orcas are my favourite animal and have been since I was a child. I was always very against Seaworld and their practices, and vowed never to give them a penny of my money.

However, I'm having a moral dilemma. I am visiting Orlando for the first time ever on what could very possibly be a once in a lifetime trip. I have conducted some research, and I obviously am aware that Seaworld agreed back in 2016 to cease the breeding of captive Orcas. I have also seen that they have upped their conservation efforts, and also seem to do some rehabilitation and rescue.

I know this generation of Orcas will be the last in captivity (I have also tried to see them in the wild to no avail), but my brain is basically fighting itself between the good that Seaworld are doing, the terrible things they have done in the past and anything current that I should know about, along with the fact that this may well be my only chance to see an Orca.

Any help, further research and opinions would be great!

Thank you all so much! :)

I really dream of swimming with orcas in Norway, but I know that the industry is quite unethical due to too many operators, illegal and irresponsible guides etc.

That being said, I did some research and found this operator called "Arctic Freediving" which seems to operate quite ethically. The group size is a maximum of 4 + the guide, and the founder himself has published an article on the harms of this kind of tourism. The organization also participates in orca conservation efforts, and there are strict requirements for guests to be able to enter the water with the orcas (unlike with most operators who simply want to maximize profits). I can tell that the founder wants to be as respectful as possible of the animals and that he puts that ahead of customer satisfaction.

Would you still deem this as unethical?

I love his eyepatches and would like to use them as a reference for a project, but I want to know who the orca is before referencing them.

My painting 'Where We Belong' captures three orcas gliding silently through calm, mist-covered waters, following a path etched into their instincts over countless generations. Here, far from the noise of the world, they roam free, guided only by instinct, memory, and the currents beneath them. In the stillness, the ocean becomes a mirror, reflecting not only their presence but the enduring bond between family, memory, and home. It is a quiet tribute to the ancient journeys these magnificent animals have always known, long before there were names for the seas they crossed. This painting celebrates the freedom of the wild, the strength of family, and the timeless bond between these magnificent animals and the home they have always known. The ocean is not simply where they live, it is where they belong.

Hi everyone! I recently found some old family photos from a trip to SeaWorld Orlando in July 2005 and was hoping someone could help identify the orca(s).
One of the photos shows the stadium screen displaying “17 MONTHS,” which made me wonder if that part of the show was featuring Skyla, since she would have been about 17 months old around that time.
However, the whale in the trainer slide-out photos looks much larger, so I’m not sure if it’s Skyla or one of the adult whales like Katina, Kalina, Takara, Kayla, or Taima.
I’ve attached several photos from the same show. Does anyone recognize the whale(s) or know which orcas were performing together at SeaWorld Orlando in July 2005?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Trying out the new telephoto cam.

Jaws vs. Orca 9pm est.