Orcas Like Brennecke's, too

Apparently we live in Sea World. This morning, we received phone call after phone call that there was an orca at our favorite boogie boarding beach--Brennecke's. (Seriously, if you don't know the name of that beach by now, you do not read our blog.) The beach is a couple of miles from Brady's office, and he left for work. Five seconds later, I decided to book it down there to catch a glimpse of the beached killer whale.

The anticipation was killing me. I was sure she would make it back into the ocean before I made it down there, until Brady called to let me know she had been there since 11pm the night before. I stopped speeding, illegally parked, and saw marine wildlife up close and in person.


This orca is between 15-20 feet long, and 3,000-5,000 lbs. (I'm going to start estimating my height at 3.5 and 9 feet and my weight between 80 and 250 pounds after this range the marine biologists gave us.)
We were no further than 10 feet away taking these pictures. I wish I remembered our other camera so we could get video. She was making noises like a whiny Zachary.
There were many reasons indicating that she was ill:

• She was very underweight. The largest measured female orca weighed in at 17,000 lbs.
• She came up to the beach and stayed there. Orcas come up to beaches to feed on other marine life commonly, and easily get back into the ocean. If you notice in the picture below, her underbelly is very scratched up from slamming up against rocks before finally hitting our favorite sand.
• She was alone. Orcas travel in pods--like a school of fish. This ocra had no others with her, indicating she had said her goodbyes.All the beaches around the area were closed. There were 8-9 tiger sharks swarming the area, hoping she'd make her way back out to sea. Tiger sharks are not the gentle, harmless reef sharks I posted about a few months ago. They are the sharks that attack surfers.
  Proof that we did not just get the images off of Google. Zac could not care less about the killer whale. He wanted to play in the sand.

Orca sightings in Hawaii are exceptional--meaning very rare. They prefer cooler (i.e. polar) regions of the world. Most recently was several years ago, when two orca came up to Lawai, where one came to beach and later die. It was exciting to be a witness of this event!

The marine biologists and other specialists cleared the area. They decided she would be euthanized and autopsied at another location to determine the cause of her illness. To save her would likely endanger the other marine life with her illness. We stayed long enough to watch a memorial sevice that included conch shells and lais gently tossed on her body. It was quite a reverent feeling.