Orca (And Other Cetacean) Links

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Above, a couple of Northern Residents in the fog, copyrighted to Cee/Carolyn.

Here's a collection of some of my favourite and most useful links. Most of them are orca-related, but a few have to do with other cetaceans and Flickr is just a great photo site. Enjoy!

If you have a site you think I should add a link to, or you want me to link your site, Email me and I'll include it!

Wild Orca Sites

Orca Live
Fondly called OL by its many supporters, Orca Live/OrcaLab is a fantastic site for basic Northern Resident information, as well as a great community for all orca-lovers. Regular updates are provided on the resident movements, while the discussion board is a great place for veterans and newbies alike. There is currently no video/audio, but they hope to give us live sound of the Strait soon! In the meantime, watch the highlights of previous years for fantastic footage of the beautiful animals.

Orcinus Orca
Jan's beautiful site is still in the early stages, and he's still working out some bugs. Nonetheless, it's a great resource for updated Northern population lists, as well as ID photos. The best part, however, is hands down the sound catalogue of the different pods. Great stuff for everyone! And don't forget to check out his great photo album.

KWAP
KWAP (which stands for Killer Whale Adoption Program) is run by the Vancouver Aquarium, and enables you to symbollically adopt a Northern Resident (or a whole pod of them!). While the family trees are fairly outdated, it's a great place for some basic info, as well as news. Not to mention you can get all the adoption names given to the pods (unfortunately, they only do the more common pods). They also have some transients for adoption. On a totally random note, I adopted the A30 pod. I thought you'd care :D

The Whale Museum
This fantastic site is not just for orcas, but I put it under 'orca' because of their adoption program. Yup, it's just like KWAP, except you can adopt a Southern Resident. You can adopt any Southern Resident, and they have interesting biographies on the page. When you adopt, they send you a whole bunch of great stuff (including a very interesting biography), and it is very much worth it (I adopted Ruffles/J1). Besides this, the Whale Museum site has a great store, interesting news stories, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Plus, it's a great place to visit if you're near Friday Harbour!

Orca Network
Orca Network is a great resource for Southern Residents. It has fantastic photos, information on all the calves born in the last few years, and a regularly updated sightings log. There are also lots of other interesting tidbits scattered around the site, so check it out!

The Center for Whale Research
The Center for Whale Research is basically what it says: the center of whale research for the southern residents. Many well-known researchers are based there, and while its ID charts are sadly outdated, there's a fantastic bundle of photos and information on the site.

North Gulf Oceanic Society (Alaska Whales)
The main site for Alaskan orca research. Interesting photos and tons of great information for the Alaskan orcas (resident and transient). Their news page is up to date and there's a whole bunch of stuff to be uncovered here.

FEROP (Russian Orca)
A very interesting page about the FEROP project, which is research being done on orcas in Russia. This is very important, as captures have started in Russia and information is vital. They are doing a photo-ID study and you can see photos and bios of some of their whales, as well as news, photos, and information on their type of orca.


Whale-Watching

Mackays Whale Watching
A wonderful Northern Resident whale-watching company. Run by (you guessed it) the Mackays, these guys have tons of experience and a great boat. Their site has a daily sightings log written by the passengers, as well as a beautiful photo gallery. Be sure to check it out!

Stubbs Island Whale-Watching
Jim and Mary Borrowman run a great company that contributes greatly to the research of Northern Resident orcas. Their site provides a daily sightings log and has a great photo gallery. Besides seeing many orcas almost guaranteed, they also have fantastic sightings of minke whales, humpbacks, fin whales, porpoises, dolphins, otters, seals, sea lions, and tons of birds.

Seasmoke Whale-Watching
Another great Northern whale-watching company, home to the fantastic photographer Jared Towers. Uniquely, they use sailboats! Check out their journal, which is full of great northern photos and reports. Sadly you can't see big versions of the photos, or go to the archives, but they're working on that.

5 Star Whale-Watching
Ok, so technically this isn't their real site, but it's a lot more interesting. This company follows the daily life of the Southern Residents (non-intrusively, of course). Their blog chronicales the daily whale sightings, complete with comments by the crew and beautiful photos. Updated almost daily.

Prince of Whales Whale-Watching
Another Southern Resident company of whale-watchers. Again, not their site, but like 5 Star Whales, their blog has a fascinating sightings log (with photos, which we all love) and informative...stuff from the crew.

Island Adventures
Once again, Southern Residents. Go to their Whale Report page and read detailed and daily notes on the residents, most of them ID'ing individual whales. And on a related note...

Jami Nagel Photography
Some of the best southern photos I've seen. Jami Nagel works on Island Adventures, and almost all of her (thanks for the correction!) photos are ID'd (which makes people like me happy!). Breaches, babies, it's all here. Fantastic!


Captive Orcas

OrcaHome
Probably the most well-known captive orca site on the net. Orcahome has a complete photo database of every captive orca and practically every deceased one. There's also photos of the tanks, as well as a great collection of Southern Resident photos, and some miscelleanous information. It should be noted, however, that while this is a great site, not all the photos are ID'd properly, and there are often photos that say, for instance "Knootka", when they are really "Kandu".

Orca Oasis
A fantastic site, probably the most reliable captive orca site out there. Not completed yet, but full of photos and information. Very complete biographies and a regularly updated news page.

Friend of the Orcas
Version five million XD No, version 4 I think. Just getting started, so there's not much there, but a great site nonetheless. Interesting info and lots of great photos.

Time for Orcas
A really good site for captive orcas, as well as belugas. Tons of photos, a great layout, and a very up-to-date news page for both belugas and orcas. (And hey, she links to me XD).

Joyousorca's Photos
Not exactly a site, but an amazing collection of hundreds of captive orca photos. Pure photo wonder-ness (yes, that's a word, shut up). Mostly, they are fantastic shots of the SeaWorld California orcas, but there are also old photos, as well as SeaWorlds Texas and Florida. Amazing! :)

Note: There are a million captive orca sites out there, most of them very good, but these are the ones I check most regularly, ergo these are the ones I post here. If you want me to put up yours, please email me and I will!


Other Cetaceans

Cetacealab
A great site for Nothern BC research. Cetacealab is home to research on humpbacks and the Northern Resident orcas, and they have a bunch of great photo galleries, as well as a very interesting journal (although the updates are crazy irregular). Lots of info and a good beginner's guide to whales.

Cascadia Research
Lots of stuff about animals of the Southern Resident range. This site has it all-photos, news articles...ok, so that's pretty much it. But there's quite a few interesting research articles, and some fascinating news on the Southern Residents, humpbacks, and fin whales of the area.


Miscellaneous Sites

DeviantArt
DA for short, this is a great site for artists of all levels. If you don't want to get an account, then by all means, just browse around. Some of the artists on there are freaking amazing (and I'm definitely not one of them), and their artwork will blow your mind.

Flickr
Ah, Flickr, how I love thee. A place for photographers (amateur, that is, although you wouldn't know it to look at their photos!) to gather, Flickr provides you with means of uploading photos, commenting on others, and forming groups of a certain interest. Packed with amazing photos, Flickr's a great place to waste a rainy day (or a sunny one).