Photographers Stunned by Orcas Wearing Dead Salmon as ‘Hats’

Photographers and researchers have been left stunned by orcas wearing dead salmon as hats for the first time in 37 years.

Scientists first reported noticing a population of orcas swimming with dead fish perched on top of its heads back in 1987.

The first sighting came when a female killer whale was seen wearing a dead salmon as a hat off the U.S. West Coast. Within a couple of weeks, the rest of the pod was doing the same.

However, by the following year, orcas abruptly stopped sporting salmon as hats and the curious trend seemed to disappear.

But, according to a report by New Scientist, photographers started spotted killer whales donning salmon hats off the coast of the Pacific Northwest again last month — sparking renewed debate over the mysterious reasons behind orcas’ perplexing behavior.

Researchers say that local photographers have captured orcas wearing them in the same region as they were seen 37 years ago. In recent weeks, photographers have spotted orcas in South Puget Sound and off Point No Point in Washington State swimming with dead fish on their heads.

“Honestly, your guess is as good as mine,” Deborah Giles, the science and research director at the non-profit Wild Orca, tells New Scientist.

“We saw one with a fish on its head. So that was fun — it’s been a while since I’ve personally seen it.”

As female orcas can live to 90 years old, it’s possible that it’s the same population of killer whales displaying this trend.

“It does seem possible that some individuals that experienced [the behavior the] first time around may have started it again,” Andrew Foote, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Oslo, Norway, tells New Scientist.

But scientists believe that orcas are wearing salmon hats as a result of high food availability at the moment. South Puget Sound is currently overflowing with chum salmon, and with an abundance of food available, orcas may be storing fish for later by balancing them on their heads. Orcas have also been observed hiding food in other locations.

“We’ve seen mammal-eating killer whales carry large chunks of food under their pectoral fin, kind of tucked in next to their body,” Giles says.

Salmon may be too small to fit securely under orcas’ pectoral fins, which could explain why the marine mammals have turned to the tops of their heads as an alternative.

Camera-equipped drones offer researchers a new way to track orcas wearing salmon on their heads — a method that wasn’t available back in the 1980s.

“Over time, we may be able to gather enough information to show that, for instance, one carried a fish for 30 minutes or so, and then he ate it,” Giles explains.

However, if drone footage shows that orcas discard the salmon without consuming them, researchers will have to revisit their theories regarding the trend.