Orca picture!

[moonvoice]

Orca

Comments

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, that's gorgeous. I didn't know orcas went as far south as Australia? I thought they were north Pacific? Shows what I know.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

*doesn't remember if I actually said they came to Australia*

This is a commission for someone in America. :)

Though Orcas can be found throughout Australian waters, though I don't know if they breed here, they're certainly found across most of the coastline of Australia.

Sightings are rare in Indonesian and Philippine waters. No estimate for the total worldwide population exists. Local estimates include 70-80,000 in the Antarctic, 8,000 in the tropical Pacific (although tropical waters are not the Orca's preferred environment, the sheer size of this area — 19 million square kilometres — means there are thousands of Orcas), up to 2,000 off Japan, 1,500 off the cooler north-east Pacific and 1,500 off Norway.

Since we are one of the closest continents to Antarctica, it stands to reason that they hang around here as well. :)

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I didn't realize it was a commission for somebody in the US. But it would make sense that if they migrate to the Antarctic, they'd come by you at the very least! I'm used to them being a strong native presence up here but hadn't studied them enough to realize they were migratory like some of the other whales. We have resident pods here in Puget Sound.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Yeah I don't think they breed here, just probably come for the seals / penguins etc. and other food sources at different times of the year. :)

I haven't seen them myself. I'm more used to seeing blue and humpback whales off the coast. We get a few of them.