An orca has brought back a bizarre 1980s fashion accessory: the dead salmon hat. Talk of orcas displaying salmon on their heads was revived in a general discussion about the whales' behavior in recent years after they began ramming boats. But the behavior was something of a blip. In the summer of 1987, a female orca in Puget Sound off the coast of Washington state was spotted displaying a dead salmon on her head. The behavior spread throughout K-pod and to the J and L pods of Southern Resident killer whales, per the Victoria Times Colonist. The trend seemed to die out by 1988, per the Guardian. But now, 37 years later, scientists have observed at least one orca wearing a salmon hat—again in Puget Sound.
A member of J pod, a 32-year-old male dubbed J27 Blackberry, was photographed with a salmon on his head at Point No Point, just off Whidbey Island, last month, per the Guardian and Gizmodo. "Honestly, we have no idea why this started again, [or] why it happens," Wild Orca researcher Deborah Giles tells the Times Colonist. But "if the salmon 'wearing' behavior exhibited by ... J27 Blackberry was, in fact, a revival of the old trend, there would be ample documentation of that," Stephanie Raymond, an Orca Network program manager, tells Gizmodo.
J27 Blackberry was born in 1991, at least three years after the behavior was last observed by humans, so it's unclear if he learned the behavior. Scientists speculate that he may simply be saving the slippery salmon as a snack, easier carried on the head than under his fins. It's also possible that displaying the fish is a form of play, perhaps indicating a higher than usual number of salmon in the area. The Southern Resident killer whales have lately been enjoying healthy salmon runs in Puget Sound's Admiralty Inlet, Giles tells the Times Colonist. However, the endangered whales are "not getting enough to eat the entire year," Giles warns. The three pods count just 70 orcas total. (More orca stories.)
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