01/14/2023
Something rather unusual happened today in Florida—a killer whale was found stranded off the eastern coast!
There’s a lot of buzz on social media about the 21 foot whale that stranded and died this morning near Palm Coast. What is a killer whale doing in Florida? Is it too warm for them? Where did it come from? What happened?
Killer whales are indeed a rare sight in Florida, but they are not unheard of. Killer whales are found in all oceans and can even be found in tropical and subtropical regions. They are rare off the Florida coast, but there are nearby groups that are found east in the Caribbean and west in the Gulf of Mexico. Based on the location this whale stranded, she probably came from the Caribbean, but scientists will need to either match her to a known whale or examine genetic samples. She also had apparent pseudo-stalked barnacles on her dorsal fin and flippers—these are more common in whales that traverse warmer waters, providing another clue about her origins.
Why did she die? The answer to this question will take longer to uncover. Scientists will perform a necropsy on the whale to determine why she died. Photos of the whale showed that she was on the thin side, but that’s not uncommon for tropical killer whales, which eke out a living in relatively unproductive waters where prey can be hard to come by. Ultimately, we will have to wait and see what the necropsy reveals.
See news article here: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/01/11/us/killer-whale-beaches-orca-florida/index.html
Reference: Katona, Steven & Beard, J. & Girton, P. & Wenzel, Frederick. (1988). Killer whales (Orcinus orca) from the Bay of Fundy to the Equator, including the Gulf of Mexico. Fiskideild. 11. 205-224.
Edit: If you’d like to do some more reading on past killer whale strandings in Florida and on the killer whales in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, here are some resources to check out!
-Bolaños-Jiménez, J., Mignucci-Giannoni, A.A., Blumenthal, J., Bogomolni, A., Casas, J.J., Henríquez, A., Iñíguez Bessega, M., Khan, J., Landrau-Giovannetti, N., Rinaldi, C., Rinaldi, R., Rodríguez-Ferrer, G., Sutty, L., Ward, N. and Luksenburg, J.A. (2014), Killer whales of the Caribbean Sea. Mammal Review, 44: 177-189. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12021
-Caldwell, D. K., Layne, J. N., & Siebenaler, J. B. (1956). NOTES ON A KILLER WHALE (ORCINUS ORCA) FROM THE NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO. Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences, 19(4), 189–196. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24315223 (This paper highlights a stranded killer whale found in Destin, Florida in 1956 and includes photos of its skull and worn teeth).
-Moore, J. C. (1953). Distribution of Marine Mammals to Florida Waters. The American Midland Naturalist, 49(1), 117–158. https://doi.org/10.2307/2422283 (This discusses a stranded killer whale found in Summerland Key, Florida in 1948)
-National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). 2021. Killer Whale (Orcinus orca): Northern Gulf of Mexico Stock Assessment. NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Stock Assesment Reports, 242-248. (https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2021-07/f2020_AtlGmexSARs_GmexKiller.pdf?null)
