Where to See Orcas Not in Captivity

Shamu Rocks, at Orlando Sea World
courtesy of Miss Quarel.

Want to see a killer whale that hasn't been captured, trained to do tricks and kept in a tiny tank? You've got plenty of options other than Sea World, where their primary breeding male was involved in his third human death last week. Instead of seeing the 42 captive orcas go through their routines for your amusement, wouldn't you rather see them doing what they do naturally?





The Pacific northwest is probably the best place to see killer whales in the world. The whales hang out just to the west of the San Juan Islands in Washington state. Tour boats run to and from the San Juans from all over the region, including from Seattle 90 miles to the south.

Better yet, you can even see them from the shore. Industrious whale lover Donna Sandstrom corralled a pack of agencies to set up The Whale Trail, a series of sites where you can see whales from the shore. Behavioral biologist and author Toni Frohoff, says land-based whale watching is "the ideal form," because it doesn't disturb the whales at all. Plus, it's basically free.


The orcas can also be found up a little north in British Columbia. You can take boat trips off Vancouver Island that will let you see grizzly bears, eagles, sea lions and other kinds of whale. On the other side of Canada, Battle Harbor, Newfoundland has orca pods visit in September. Killer whales are spotted off Hokkaido, the rugged, northern island of Japan.

Orcas can be seen from every continent. Tysfjord, Norway, is the best place in Europe, according to the Complete Whale-Watching Handbook. But you might find the tours off St. David's, Wales, easier to get to. The orcas that visit Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in May are famous for eating dolphins. Playa Punta Norte in Argentina is where the whales have learned to beach themselves to attack a sea lion colony. (That's a rare occurrence, but you can see them from shore.) Japan's northern, rugged island of Hokkaido has lots of orca sightings. Orcas are known to grab stingrays from the ocean floor near Australia, where surfers have paddled around with the whales, too. With all these options who would want to sit on a bench and watch a whale forced through a hoop?

Map and Guide to Killer Whale Watching Around the World

Killer Whale Tilly Father to One-Quarter Captive Orcas

Shamu Rocks, at Orlando SeaWorld
courtesy of Miss Quarel.

The horrific killing trainer Dawn Brancheau at Sea World by the orca Tilikum, or Tilly, prompted Sea World to indefinitely close its killer whale shows. But the Tilly problem is a long-term one. He fathered 10 of the current 42 other captive orcas around the world--nearly one-quarter of the stock.

Many blame the attack on the whole practice of holding these huge, sociable whales captive to entertain us. Jennifer Viegas at Discovery reports that Tilly, a stud whale, may have had high testosterone levels or swings. That's what made him the most successful male killer whale captive breeder, siring a record 17 calves, 10 of which are still alive, Viegas says. His offspring include Unna, Sumar, Tuar, Tekoa, Nakai,, Kohana, Ikaika , Skyla,  Malia and Ky, who attacked a trainer in San Antonio in 2004. Plus, he has at least one grandchild.

That means nearly one-quarter of the killer whales held in captivity around the world and nearly half the 22 held by SeaWorld are related to a killer whale with high testosterone and high aggression. Even if he weren't a flawed individual, that's a terribly inbred population. But now that he's been very publicly involved in three attacks on people, it highlights how misguided these breeding programs might be. Would you keep breeding the dog that attacks and kills people? 


But breeders probably had little choice but to rely on Tilly. No other male was anywhere near that productive. Killer whales are the biggest animal bred in captivity and one of the most difficult. Yet public uproar and conservation laws have all but prevented the capture of more orcas since 1989 (with the exception of 10 captured in Taiji, Japan, the notorious home of The Cove of dolphin slaughter and capture, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society says). A live, captive orca would fetch about $600,000, they say in their report Captive Orcas: Dying to Entertain You.

Tilly was born in about 1981 and captured two years later off Iceland. By then SeaWorld had worn out its welcome capturing killer whales in the Pacific Northwest. If he were wild, he would still be living in his mother's pod, but he's mainly been kept in isolation. Like many captive orcas, his dorsal fin flops to the side from too much swimming in circles.

Tilly is going to be hugely influential in the killer whale captive population. He may just be the one that convinced people to set them free.

Where to See Whales in the Wild

An Easier Way to Find a Good Whale Watch on the East Coast?

Picking out a whale-friendly East Coast whale watch just got a little easier. NOAA and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society just started Whale Sense, a voluntary program to ensure tours from Virginia to Maine don't bother whales.

The rules are complicated--more than just stay back 100 feet, though that is the basic distance. (If the whale approaches you, stay put. If it's a right whale, back off 1,500 feet.) What I found more amusing were the rules against advertising showing whale watchers touching, swimming with or even chasing the whales. Is Jerry Bruckheimer running a watch somewhere?

So far the group has signed up five companies, mainly in Massachusetts. I count at least 30 tour companies from Virginia to Maine, with 18 going to Stellwagen Bank--not included the odd charters that line the whole coast. So what about the ones not on the list?

Even Frank Kelley, operations manager for Mass Bay Lines (listed) says that right now the program is so new that you can't judge an operation for not participating. Lots of the tours work with other whale groups. For example, Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company is tied to Allied Whale. The New England Aquarium's whale watch, which I just went on, isn't part of the program yet (they're still examining the details), says spokesman Tony LaCasse. But since they already do most of it and they helped push voluntary standards decades ago, they'll probably be part of it.

When you're out on Stellwagen it's not the commercial whale watching boats you see encroaching on whales, but the tiny recreational fishing boats. Kelley says many tour operators worry that the small boats don't understand the protocols (which is elaborate when it comes to many boats wanting to see the same whales). NEAQ's LaCasses says that personally he'd like to see an enforcement presence on the water--like the Coast Guard is for boating regulations.

When I talked with marine mammal expert Toni Frohoff (she's a behavioral biologist and research director at TerraMar Research) she mentioned that generally it's better to have one big boat in the water around a whale instead of a bunch of little ones. At first that seems counterintuitive; we normally don't think of going out in a big, hulking, Hummer of a boat as being eco-friendly. But that's what it is, at least to the whales.

The tricky thing for whale watchers is picking tours that won't annoy--or hit--the whales. In Puget Sound tour boats are known to crowd the orcas, which could interfere with their eating or mating. I haven't seen that on the vast waters East Coast boats troll.

Consumers can't easily tell from an ad or website that attitude of operation. (Well, ok, I am a little skeptical when I read "Imagine the sight of dolphins dancing and frolicking right alongside The Silver Bullet. See whales surfacing and breaching...[from a] shiny, brand new 70 ft. long ocean going projectile." But most whale watches at least claim to be whale-friendly. But is that like a processed cereal labeled as organic? I hope the Whale Sense program grows and offers up an easy way for wildlife watchers to pick the responsible tours.

• Here's Where You Can Go Whale-Watching
• Want to See More Animals in the Northeast? Click Here.