Who's the Killer?
© 2019 Pam Ferris-Olson
The subject of Who’s the Killer? is a well-known and beloved marine mammal. The killer whale or orca is familiar to a broad audience because it has been a star performer at marine theme parks throughout the world. Even more spellbinding, however, is watching a killer whale in the wild as its dorsal fin, aimed like an ebony saber, slices through the water transforming a surface reflection of dark fir trees and white clouds into a shimmering watercolor canvas. Viewing such artistry in the Salish Sea, a body of water that lies between Washington State and British Columbia, Canada, is increasingly at risk due to a deterioration in health of the resident orca population. The population decline and poor health represented by the bent dorsal fin is, in large part, the result of the whales' continual exposure to marine noise and plastic pollution and reduced availability of the Chinook Salmon, their preferred food source. The whale in the adjacent picture leaps from waves that graphically illustrate the relationship between the resident killer whales and the salmon in the Salish Sea.