Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Fundraising
  • Green Whale
  • Kids blogs
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
Dolphin in Brazil helping with fishing illustration

Dolphins and fishermen working together

Kidzone - quick links Fun Facts Curious kids Blogs Fantastic fundraisers Gallery Splish and Splash...
Gray whale (eschrichtius robustus) Gray whale in Ojo de liebre lagoon Baja California.

Why we’re walking for whales to save the world

We've got enormous ambitions when it comes to fighting climate breakdown, and so two members...
Dolphins with keepers in the new Windsor Safari Park. Image: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Three decades on from UK’s last dolphin show, what needs to change?

The UK hasn't had captive whales and dolphins on display for 30 years, but it's...
Fishers' involvement is crucial. Image: WDC/JTF

When porpoises and people overlap

We're funding a project in Hong Kong that's working with fishing communities to help save...
Whale evolution cover

How did whales end up living in the ocean?

Kidzone - quick links Fun Facts Curious kids Blogs Fantastic fundraisers Gallery Splish and Splash...
Fishers chatting

Scottish fishers working with us to reduce risks to whales

Small changes to fishing gear could make a big difference to whales around Scotland, and...

Mindful conservation – why we need a new respect for nature

'We should look at whales and dolphins as the indigenous people of the seas -...
tins of whale meat

How Japan’s whaling industry is trying to convince people to eat whales

Japan's hunters kill hundreds of whales every year despite the fact that hardly anyone in...

Iceland 2013: Saga #7 – Orca Research

Dr Filipa Sammara from the Marine Research Institute in Reykjavik and her team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland are currently in Grundarfjordur studying the orcas that spend the winter hunting for herring in the local fjords.

Dr Filipa Sammara

Dr Filipa Sammara

Here, Filipa explains the research goals.

The aim of the project is to study how the feeding behaviour of Icelandic orcas changes within the same population. Icelandic orcas feed mainly on herring and appear to follow the herring in its migration during the year. At different times of the year the behaviour of the herring changes, depending on whether it is spawning, in the summer, or overwintering, in the winter. Over the last few years herring has been coming to the waters of Grundafjordur to overwinter and orcas were observed feeding on herring in this area in 2011. By taking photo-identification pictures and making acoustic recordings we can identify the whales that are seen in this area and investigate the sounds they produce during feeding. This data will then be compared to previous information collected in the summer in Vestmannaeyjar to investigate if the same whales are travelling between the two areas to feed on herring and how their feeding behaviour varies at different times of the year. This will greatly increase our knowledge of the Icelandic orca population and how they adapt to changes in their prey behaviour.  

Male orca Westmann Islands

Male orca, Westmann Islands seen in the summer off the south coast of Iceland

Male orca Grundarfjordur

The same male seen in Grundarfjordur on the west coast in the winter.

It is estimated there are 6,618 orcas in Icelandic and offshore waters and a photo-ID catalogue dating back to the 1980’s has identified about 400 individuals. Recent studies along the south coast during the summer months have documented 123 orcas. Here in Grundarfjordur, after just one season, researchers have identified 24 individuals. 14 of these were ‘matched’ as the same orcas seen off the south in summer, two matched whales seen off the Snaefellsnes peninsula In the summer of 2008 and one matched with the orcas that were seen in the fjords in the east of Iceland in the 1980’s.