Orca wearing salmon’ hat’ (Photo by Jim Pasola of the Orca Network via https://nypost.com/2024/11/28/us-news/orcas-spotted-wearing-salmon-hats-for-the-first-time-in-37-years/)

Dear Readers, back in 1987 a female from a pod of orcas off Puget Sound in Washington State, USA, started wearing a salmon on her head. One could be forgiven for thinking that this sounds rather too much like some teenage TikTok craze, and indeed,  it ‘went viral’, with the whole pod wearing ‘fish hats’ within six weeks, and whales in other pods taking up the trend. Then the orcas stopped doing it, and life returned to normal, until this year when fish hats are all the rage again. As orcas can live for decades there’s a good chance that some of the animals doing this have seen it all before. But why are they doing it?

“Your guess is as good as mine” says scientist Deborah Giles, in a very refreshing burst of energy. However, there are a few theories.

One is that there are so many salmon about (and indeed, it is apparently a bumper year) that the whales are storing the fish on their heads for a quick snack later on. Orcas have been known to tuck a fish under their ‘arm’ (pectoral fin), but salmon might be a bit small for this, so maybe the head is a better option.

But for me, I wonder if this is a cultural thing? Different pods of orcas have very different habits, from seal-eating as opposed to fish eating, and I blogged a while back about the orcas who are attacking boats in the Bay of Biscay. I suspect that they are not only hyper-intelligent but that, like humans, they might be subject to social contagion. I remember being a small child and looking around our playground to see that every single child was involved in some kind of ‘clapping’ game. Except me, who never saw the point, but that’s another story.

Anyhow, it appears that we might get at least some answers, as with the advent of drone technology it’s a little easier to follow an orca with a fish on its head to see what it does with it eventually. If it eats it, then maybe the carrying theory is correct, but if it just leaves it, well maybe it is just ‘playing’. Who knows? These are some of the most enigmatic animals of all. I wouldn’t put it past them to decide to wear ‘fish hats’ just to confuse the scientists.

You can read the article here.