Orca Ecotype Notes

Hi fish fries! Since all sticker club rewards have been sent out already, I wanted to post some notes that I took while doing research for August & September's deluxe cards! 

I wanted to focus on orca ecotypes because I found it absolutely fascinating specific orca pods have defining characteristics that aren't notably found in other pods! Many factors including where they live and what they eat can determine their behavior has a group.

If you live in North America, specifically along the Pacific North West (PNW), you might be most familiar with the term resident & transients for orcas--from what I've read, these ecotypes are specific to the North Pacific coast along with the offshore group. Residents are among one of the most studied orca ecotypes because of how they usually tend to stay in one area versus migrating like transients & off shores do! 

I found it easier to categorize northern ecotypes by their location--where as the residents, transients and offshore ecotypes stay along the PNW, the two remaining ecotypes--North Atlantic Types 1 & 2 reside on the east coast. Type 1s are generally found up and down the north east coast & Great Britain whereas Type 2s are mainly seen in Ireland & Scotland. 

Southern Hemisphere ecotypes all live in the Antarctic region, is different than the Northern Hemisphere ecotypes which I thought was easier to organize by location (west & east coast dwellers). All of these orcas tend to reside in different parts of the Antarctic. The most common image of these orcas usually show their skin as a yellowish-brown color versus their usual black. This is a result of algae/diatom build up on their skin (I'm assuming in the same way that algae builds up on glass over time, it works the same way) but can also be shed off when orcas lose their dead skin. 

The most interesting ecotype I discovered while reading up on the Southern Hemisphere is most notably the Subantarctic/Type Ds, which look a lot different when compared to your standard orca and its popular defining characteristics (tall dorsal fins, medium-large eye spots, huge round flippers). It's thought that these subantarctic ecotypes can be categorized into their own subspecies but I heard that's currently up for debate (?). 

It's neat also to see the correlation between ecotype sizes and their diet, as larger orca ecotypes such as the Transients, Type 2s, Antarctic Type As, and etc have a consistent diet of marine mammals (which also explains their development of very sharp teeth) in constrast to smaller ecotypes which feed on fish and may have more blunt teeth based on the diet they eat (there's research that shows that orcas that frequently prey on rough skinned fish such as sharks will have teeth that are blunt as a result of wearing down--since shark skin is the same has sandpaper. Just imagine how worn out your teeth would be over time if you chewed on sandpaper every day!). 

Overall, it was really fun to look these up and learn a bit more about them. I think it's pretty standard knowledge that orcas are extremely intelligent and have sophisticated social skills--and I feel like those go into so much more detail when you break them up into ecotypes and think about how different each pod socializes and behaves based on their environment.

That's all the notes I think I have for these ecotypes! Let me know what you think or what you've found most interesting or if you have any questions! As always, thanks for sticking around for these long ramblings and all the best!

Kir