How Do Scientists Name Orcas and Orca Pods?
One unique feature of orcas (or “killer whales”) is that they exist in all of the world’s oceans with populations across the globe. So, how do scientists and environmentalists keep track of them?
North American Orca Populations
First, let’s explore the various orca populations off the west coast of North America. Scientists are currently aware of four communities of orcas, each with roughly 100 individual orca members.
The four groups are the Aleutian Residents, the Southern Alaska Residents, the Northern Residents, and the Southern Residents. Each community contains multiple pods, and the Northern Resident population is the largest with about 200 whales spanning a total of 16 pods.
As you can tell from this description, the first step to naming orcas and orca pods is to identify the different populations. Typically, this is the result of watching for orcas in the wild and keeping track of their movements and behaviors. This tracking process is how scientists originally discovered that there are three different types of orca populations: transient orcas, resident orcas, and offshore orcas.
Michael Bigg’s Contribution to Orca Naming
A Canadian researcher named Michael Bigg was studying orcas off the Canadian coast in the 1970s when he noticed that what we now call transient orcas and resident orcas differed in their behavior and, most noticeably, their feeding habits. He noticed that the resident orcas relied on a diet of fish while the transient orcas were the mammal-eating predators that had earned the “killer whale” nickname for the species.
Bigg then went one step further, creating a numbering system for the orcas that’s still in use today. Orca pods were assigned letters, and individual orcas were assigned numbers based on the order in which they were identified. Bigg would then take photos of the orcas’ distinct features and markings to catalog the population and allow long-term tracking of the same populations.
Most orcas have unique markings along their saddle patches, the grey area behind the dorsal fin. For those that look similar, other markings can often be found on the animal’s cheeks or eye patches. From that point forward, the orca is known by the alphanumeric combination of its pod letter and its individual number.
The Importance of Orca “Nicknames”
The Southern Resident orca population, which is the most-referenced population in the US waters, is made up of three pods: the J pod, the K pod, and the L pod. Last but not least, Bigg and his team ended up having nicknames for some of the orcas they interacted with most often, which inspired widespread naming down the line.
Today, many scientists and public officials have found that giving individual orcas nicknames (like pet names) is a tried-and-true approach to get the public to care about the orcas and their well-being. Since the Southern Resident orca population is endangered and many other ocean species are at risk, this nicknaming process may be the key to lasting change.