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My friend is a news reporter in Florida on scene there, she said “FWC and Seaworld are recovering the body now. NOAA says it’s the first Killer Whale in history to wash up in the Southeast US. They’re going to necropsy to try and figure out why it’s here.”

This is sad to see. Hopefully it’s an isolated case.

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Sea World trying to do some secret dumping?

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Secret dumping on a public beach for everyone to see?

Do killer whales come this far south typically? I thought they preferred colder waters

Probably read the currents wrong.

Killer whales are actually found in all of the worlds oceans, though they definitely prefer colder waters. There are some populations in tropical waters but it’s not too common.

This helped answer a lot of the questions I had after seeing this.

I spent the first 25 years of my life in Florida and I would have been shocked to see a killer whale there. I was taught as a kid that they were arctic animals!

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Can anyone explain why whales are grounding themselves?

edit Legitimately asking, not a joke.

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Lifelong FL native here. I’d never seen a whale shark in Florida until a few years ago in Tarpon Springs. I didn’t even know they were in the Gulf of Mexico. Then right afterwards, Great White shark sightings like every week. Didn’t know they were there either!

It can happen for a lot of reasons. Some populations specialize in hunting in very shallow water or even running themselves into the beach, which means they can get stuck if they make a mistake. But most of the time it is a result of severe illness, which causes the animal to either lose the ability to navigate or they just lack the strength to swim against the current.

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Kojima really thinking outside the box with his Death Stranding 2 ads.

Sonar pings will also send them fleeing into shallows, and can result in beaching.

I don't know why you are being downvoted. I think the likelihood of it being from an aquarium or illegal trade is greater than it happening naturally. This has never happened before. I've seen Pilot wales beach themselves, but not a fucking Orca.

We don't have orcas. We do have aquariums that have been caught doing unethical things to orcas.

This has never happened before but you’re assuming it’s Option 1 that has never happened before as opposed to Option 2 that has never happened before

Releasing a formerly captive orca that subsequently didn’t do well in the wild isn’t unprecedented. Keiko (Willy) lasted just a year on his own and was unable to socialize with any of his own kind.

My comment is a throwaway joke given how quickly Sea World was on the scene but a killer whale dying this far from their usual turf hasn’t been recorded either. I don’t know if anyone else has released an orca lately given Keiko’s fate but they’re usually social animals so you’d expect sightings of her pod.

The autopsy and dna will hopefully confirm where the whale came from, but I wouldn't be surprised if the whale was held in captivity at some point. A few in the state have recently changed hands, and we have had a lot of controversy surrounding orcas, especially.

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Isn’t there also a mammalian instinct to avoid drowning when sick/injured, even though it seems counterintuitive

This is reddit man, it's a little wild. And sometimes people like to dogpile on down votes. Maybe a joke with bad deliver that didn't land right quite right, but you didn't say anything malicious or jerkish. You're good by me.

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Sounds legit, that's probably exactly what I would do if I found myself in Florida.

It misunderstood the FAA grounding order today.

Someone once mentioned to me it has something to do with sonar, any truth to that?

Localized entirely within your kitchen?

Are you thinking of the mammalian diving response maybe? That's not an instinct, but a physiological response. Breath-holding and a drop in blood pressure and heart rate when immersed in water (or splashing cold water on your face!).

Not sure if cetaceans ever beach to avoid drowning though.

Grew up on the gulf and atlantic waters.

They don't come here.

The bottlenoses are gangster af. That's my theory.

Possibly. I'm also wondering it some sort of foul play was involved. It's such an odd thing to have happen. I've lived in Florida for many years and never seen an Orca outside of a theme park.

First thing I said to myself was “what the hell was it doing in Florida?” Orcas are cold water dwellers from what I know.

I got a slight chuckle out of this. Still very sad for this poor whale! But thank you for the laugh.

there were arctic sea angles this past summer off the nc coast and more jelly fish than im used to seeing

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There was a pod of Orcas identified in the Gulf in 2016 but I don’t know if they are still there.

A few kilograms of TNT should fix the problem here