In January 2019 a killer whale known as John Coe – which can be identified by missing sections of its dorsal fin – was spotted in the Moray Firth. A further British sighting of killer whales was made the following month when a lobster fisherman spotted another pod of killer whales six miles out to sea off the coast of Northumberland. The killer whales eventually exited the river and made their way back out to sea and into deep water.
The pod consisted one bull, one calf and four female killer whales and swam up the Clyde as far as the Erskine Bridge, possibly following sources of food such as seals or fish. In April 2018 a separate pod of six killer whales was spotted in the River Clyde in Scotland. The resident British killer whales have not produced a calf since monitoring began in the 1990s and there are fears that they may be infertile due to their exposure to PCB chemicals and other forms of pollution. In the spring of 2021 the pod was spotted outside of their usual home, this time off the coast of Cornwall. There are fears that the rest of the pod may have similar levels of chemicals in their bodies. Analysis of the killer whale found extremely high levels of chemicals and pollutants known as PCBs in her body, which may have been the cause of death. This pod consisted of just nine killer whales and was reduced to eight in 2016 when ones of the female killer whales known as Lulu was found dead tangled in commercial fishing gear. Many people are surprised to hear that killer whales are present in the waters around the British Isles but they are indeed, and there is in fact a resident British population usually found off the west coast of Scotland. Killer whales tend to prefer water which is at least 20 – 30 metres deep and can often be found around areas where there is sloping continental shelves. This makes them one of the most widespread animals in the world, with killer whales only absent from enclosed and semi-enclosed bodies of water such as the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Killer whales have an extremely extensive distribution, being found in all of the world’s seas and oceans.
Distribution Killer whales are one of the most widely distributed mammal species in the world. Killer whales are kept in captivity in some parts of the world, although this is extremely controversial and a number of captive killer whales have been known to display uncharacteristic behaviour such as attacking – and in some cases killing – their trainers and handlers. Killer whales are fierce predators which will attack and eat almost any form of animal which they find, although they have never been known to kill a human in the wild. They are widely found throughout the seas and oceans of the world and have a high profile in the public consciousness the world over due to the use of killer whales in design products and culture. Killer whales are an instantly recognisable species of marine mammal due to their striking black and white colouration.
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