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A lone male killer whale with a large, rippled dorsal fin swims by a glacier
 
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Familiar Fins

You can find out a lot about a killer whale if you know what to look for. A killer whale’s dorsal fin and saddle patch (the area under the dorsal fin) are as distinct as a face or a fingerprint. Once scientists have a whale on file, they can keep track of where it hangs out and who it spends time with. That’s how they first discovered the amazingly complex culture of resident killer whales.

  
 
Killer whale calves can be hard to identify. Luckily, researchers can track them by identifying their mothers, who are usually close by. A killer whale identification photo with distinctive nicks in the dorsal fin
     
 

Dorsal fins
Every nick and scar on a killer whale's dorsal fin tells a different story. Stubbs, who was the first killer whale to be ever identified from her dorsal fin, was very distinctive. The top half of her dorsal fin was severed, probably from an undersea accident. Winchester, another killer whale, has a more subtle injury: someone probably shot at her, and now she has a small hole in her dorsal fin.

Saddle patches
The shape and pattern of a saddle patch and the scars on it can be used to tell different killer whales apart from one another. For example, Nolades and Raven both have teeth rake marks on their saddle patches from other killer whales, but Nolades has a larger and whiter saddle patch than Raven.

Killer whale mugshots
Together, the dorsal fin and saddle patch can be used to make up a mugshot to identify individual killer whales. Since this amazing discovery by pioneering researcher Dr. Michael Bigg, marine scientists have photographed every resident killer whale in British Columbia. Transients and offshores are hard to photograph because they’re harder to find, but scientists are slowly building a photo album with the ones that do get photographed.

Identifying killer whales
Would you be able to tell one killer whale from another in the wild? Test your skills with our Killer Whale Identification game!

 
     
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