kanaloa

White and Killer Whales

Killer Whale (Grampus orca)

Killer WHales are found in all oceans and seas, tropical and polar alike, from Novaya  Zemlya, Baffin Bay, and Bering Strait to beyond the Antarctic Circle in the Southern Hemisphere .
The most striking and unforgettable feature of the Killer when swimming at the surface is its erect black dorsal fin, rising like a pole every time the back comes up. The flippers and caudal flukes of young and old males are exceptionally large. Males grow to a length of 30 feet, but most females do not exceed half that size.
Killer Whales may be recognized by the bluntly rounded snout, which merges imperceptibly with the forehead, the white patch just behind and above the eye, and the striking contrast of the jetblack color of the head and back with the snowy-white underparts. They have 10 to 14 large conical teeth on each side in each of the powerful jaws which interlock when the mouth is closed.
Endowed with powerfully built bodies and ravenous appetites, Killer Whales hunt in packs of 3 to 40 individuals and habitually prey on other warmblooded marine animals, including their own kind. The members of these schools often travel at a rapid rate in close formation, side by side, rising and diving at the same time, or cruise along at a uniform pace with their dorsal fins and part of dorsal fins and part of their backs exposed.
The Killer Whale has a mouth and throat large enough to swallow seals and porpoises entire. Narwhals, White Whales, and hair seals will leave open water and frantically rush toward the beach or narrow leads in the ice on the approach of a pack of Killers. Gray Whales either become paralyzed with fright and float belly up, or head toward the beach and slide into water so shallow that they roll in the wash. A pack of Killers, encircling a large whale, will harass and leap at it from all sides, biting at the fleshy lower lips, the flippers, and the sides until the animal either runs ashore, if near the coast, or, becoming exhausted, is literally torn to pieces.


Killers hunt for seals and penguins along the edge of pack ice and around large floes. At times when seals are basking or have taken refuge near the edge of thin ice, a school of Killers will suddenly come up beneath and endeavor to dislodge them by breaking the ice with their backs.
In the fall at the time fur seal pups are learning to swim, packs of Killer Whales cruise back and forth in the coastal waters of the Pribilof Islands, devouring hundreds of the babies. They swallow young walruses whole. Fish of all sizes also form part of their food.

White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas)

White Whales are most numerous during the summer months in Arctic seas and adjacent waters as far south as Okhotsk Sea, Kodiak Island, St. Lawrence River, and Great Britain (Plate XIII). Shallow coastal waters and bays are their favorite haunts, but they also ascend rivers. White Whales have been seen in the Yukon River 600 miles from salt water and they travel up the St. Lawrence River as far as Quebec.
Near Greenland, fishermen have used motorboats to surround and drive schools of White Whales into shallow water. On the Greenland coast they are caught in large-meshed nets supported by floats and laid outward.

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