The endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales visited Vashon and Maury Islands on December 3, 2012, searching for salmon. As they passed Point Robinson, they burst into playful antics that have to be seen to be believed: cartwheels, breaches, tail slaps, spyhops, and beautiful synchronized swimming in their tightly knit family groups.
These orcas are free to roam where they please, unlike the ones in marine circuses like SeaWorld, and they never leave their mothers. They remain in closely bonded matrilineal family groups for their entire lives, which can last over 100 years for females and over 60 years for males. They swim up to 100 miles per day.
These orcas are endangered because SeaWorld got its start decades ago by capturing and selling one-third of them -- specifically targeting the babies, taking an entire generation and killing many of their mothers, who were trying desperately to protect them. (All but one of those young captured whales died in SeaWorld's barren concrete tanks within a few years. The sole survivor is Lolita at the Miami Seaquarium, imprisoned alone for 42 years in a tiny bathtub-sized tank.) The population of the Southern Resident Killer Whales has never recovered to its precapture numbers, and these beloved orcas of Puget Sound remain endangered.
Please DO NOT give your money to SeaWorld, the Miami Seaquarium, or any other marine circus. Not one of them can give these highly intelligent cetaceans even a shred of the freedom and families they were torn from. Instead, please come watch wild whales in their REAL sea world: the ocean.
Please visit my website (www.wildnwbeaut...) and my Facebook page ( / wildnorthwestbeauty ) to see more of my beautiful Pacific Northwest photography.
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