A recent orca sighting recalls a mystifying 1980s phenomenon. Is it happening again?

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN

(CNN) — Fashion is fickle and styles come and go — even for orcas, apparently.

In 1987, a group of killer whales off the northwestern coast of North America briefly donned salmon “hats,” carrying dead fish on their heads for weeks. Recently, a male orca known as J27, or “Blackberry,” was photographed in Washington’s Puget Sound wearing a salmon on his head, and many observers declared that the trend had returned.

But while the sight of the salmon-wearing orca sparked excitement, “there have been no further recent images of these orcas wearing salmon hats,” said Stephanie Raymond, a program manager of the Orca Network, a nonprofit that promotes awareness and conservation of orcas and other marine mammals of the Pacific Northwest.

These killer whales visit Puget Sound annually, and when they do, “there is no shortage of eyes on the water and cameras capturing their visit, in addition to permitted research vessels carefully observing them,” Raymond told CNN in an email. If the so-called trend of wearing salmon hats was making a comeback among these orcas, “there would be ample documentation of that,” she said.

Photographer Jim Pasola captured the image of J27 and his fish headgear on October 25 from Point No Point, a site on the tip of a peninsula in the Puget Sound. On October 29, the Orca Network shared the photo in its Whale Sighting Report email. A subcommunity of the orcas, known as J Pod, were hunting salmon in Puget Sound, and J27 swam at the surface with a salmon draped over the top of his head.

“I saw it in our email summary of the reports of that week,” said Howard Garrett, a former orca researcher and Orca Network’s cofounder and board president. “It was a highlighted photograph, a lucky shot.”

About 10 days later, another salmon-wearing orca briefly surfaced near scientists who were gathering data in Puget Sound, said Dr. Deborah Giles, one of the researchers on the boat and the science and research director for the conservation group Wild Orca.

“We utilize a scent detection dog on the front of our boat to help us sniff out floating killer whale poop,” Giles said. The researchers were tracking a group of whales, and everyone’s attention — including the dog’s — was focused ahead of them.

“I was driving the boat,” Giles said. “I happened to look back over my shoulder, and there was a whale with their head out of the water, with a limp fish draped across their head.”

Giles was unable to tell if the orca was J27; identifying features such as the dorsal fin and saddle patch on its back were underwater. “But the fish was definitely up there,” she said. “I had enough time to holler to the front of the boat, ‘Hey, there’s fish-on-head behind me!’” But before her colleagues could respond, the unidentified orca and its fish hat had slipped below the surface.

A fishy flashback

For Garrett, the photo of J27 wearing a fish was “a throwback to 1987, when several of the Southern Resident orcas threw fish on their heads and swam around, as if they were proud of them,” he said.

Southern Resident orcas are a single population of killer whales made up of three close-knit family groups, or pods: J pod, K pod and L pod. Unlike most killer whales that swim the world’s oceans, Southern Resident orcas stick together, gathering annually in Puget Sound to feast on salmon during the summer and fall.

Other killer whales feed on fish, octopus and marine mammals, but the diet of Southern Resident whales is almost entirely salmon. They are an endangered population, with just 72 orcas in all three pods, Garrett said.

In 1987, a female in the K pod began carrying a fish on her head. Other orcas soon began doing the same, recalled Giles, who witnessed the odd behavior.

“I actually saw the whales physically myself for the first time in 1987,” Giles said. “These whales were on the west side of San Juan (Island), foraging on fish every day. We saw a fair amount of salmon hats at that time.”

The behavior spread to the other Southern Resident pods over the next five to six weeks, then petered out. “It was noted a few times the following summer, and then never again,” researchers reported in December 2004 in the journal Biological Conservation.

Another orca wearing a salmon hat was photographed during a 2019 survey by the marine conservation group Ocean Wise. In a February 2022 Instagram post, researchers wrote that the orca was A99 “Alder,” a young male with the Northern Resident clan. Drone footage (obtained with a special research permit) showed A99’s mother repeatedly offering the fish to her offspring. A99 took a single bite, but the youngster seemed more interested in balancing the salmon on his face.

Playful or practical?

Even if J27’s fish-wearing doesn’t signal a return of salmon hats among the Southern Resident orcas, what does the behavior mean? One explanation could be simple playfulness, Garrett said. For most of October, the Southern Resident clan gorged on salmon in Puget Sound, and it’s possible that there was simply so much food that the orca couldn’t resist having some fun with his dinner.

“For that extended period, they had a lot to eat. It was a kind of a celebration,” Garrett said. “It probably was in 1987, too. They were just enjoying the abundance of salmon and playing with their food.”

But salmon-wearing could also have a practical purpose. It could be that the orcas kept the fish on their heads so they could eat them later or share them with a podmate, Giles said.

“These animals cooperatively hunt and share food. They’ll literally bite a salmon in half or in thirds and share it with family members,” she said. Orcas are highly social animals, and killer whales in the Southern Resident clan are known for behaviors that reinforce social connections, such as elaborate greeting ceremonies. When salmon is plentiful, temporarily wearing a dead one as a hat could be another aspect of sharing food as a bonding experience in the group, Giles said.

In fact, strong social connections between Southern Resident orcas might explain why salmon-wearing became so popular in 1987, Garrett added.

“When one of them throws a fish on its head, that’s a social event,” he said. “I’m not surprised it did spread to other pods.”

Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine.

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