Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) - Office of Protected Resources - NOAA Fisheries
Killer whales of different populations have specific vocalization types. In addition, even within the same population, dialects are known to exist among different pods of "resident" populations in the eastern North Pacific.
Habitat
Killer whales are most abundant in coastal habitats of temperate waters, especially in the high latitudes. Killer whales are seldom seen in tropical and offshore waters.
Killer Whale spyhopping
(Orcinus orca)
Photo: NOAA
Distribution
Killer whales are the most widely distributed marine mammals. They are found in all parts of the ocean and in most seas from the Arctic to the Antarctic. In the North Pacific Ocean, killer whales are often sighted from the eastern Bering Sea to the Aleutian Islands; in the waters of southeastern Alaska and the intercoastal waterways of British Columbia and Washington State; along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California; along the Russian coast in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk; and on the eastern side of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, and the Sea of Japan. In the North Atlantic Ocean, sightings of killer whales are commonly documented up to the pack ice edge in Norwegian waters and around Iceland. In the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, killer whales are frequently sighted along the pack ice of Antarctica, and off the coasts of Patagonia, southern Argentina, and New Zealand.
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