Hawaii: False Killer Whale Smiles For The Camera [Video]
Just a week after we reported about the rather exciting encounter two fisherman had with a pod of killer whales, we now have something even more interesting. People from a Hawaii tour group recently were witnesses to a rare, unique sighting when they went sightseeing near the coast off West Oahu last weekend. The group managed to run into a pod of rare false killer whales and even managed to capture the rare mammals on video, KHON2 News reports. The highlight of one of the videos is the moment when a large false killer whale, probably the matriarch of the pod, was seen seemingly “smiling” at an underwater camera. We have embedded the video above which you can watch, and come to your own conclusions.
According to Elizabeth Hartford of Wild Side Specialty Tours, the incident happened last weekend off Keawaula, or Yokohama Beach, in West Oahu. According to her, the pod was spotted nearly 1,000 feet deep underwater.
She adds,
“They weren’t really friendly at first, but then we had seen some movement a little further out in deeper water, so about 1,500 feet, we came across these two and they were quite interested in the boat and stayed with us and tried to eat my GoPro. This is probably one of the closet encounters I’ve had with them, and it was pretty exhilarating for me and everyone on board as well.”
According to Hartford, the whales seen in the video are in all likelihood a false killer whale mother and calf duo.
Having seen the video by now, what do you think? Was the false killer whale really grinning at the camera?
Now, if you are still wondering what false killer whales are, let us explain. Like “original” killer whales or Orcas, false killer whales too are part of the dolphin family. Larger than the more famous bottlenose dolphin, false killer whales are large sea mammals that are only dwarfed in size by killer whales and perhaps the pilot whale. They are, however, a completely different species and are in fact very rare. This is probably why you might have never heard of them before.
According to Discovery News, the pod of false killer whales that live off the Hawaiian islands are considered a separate subspecies and are even rarer. Current estimates put the total number of false killer whales near the Hawaiian coast to be less than 200 individuals.
“They’re an insular pod. This means they live only in the waters surrounding our islands. They don’t leave,” Hartford said. “Because of their isolation, they have become their own distinct population.”
False killer whales can be easily distinguished by their size and color. They are larger than normal dolphins, have grayish skin, and have a slender build compared to killer whales. The average size of a male false killer whale rarely exceeds 20 feet. This is in contrast to the bigger killer whales that could range from 20 feet to over 30 feet in length — the largest recorded specimen being over 32 feet long. They could also be at times mistaken for the similarly sized pilot whale.
[Image Via YouTube ScreenGrab, Wikimedia Commons]
