Orca Tail Flukes

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

This resident Orca ( Orcinus orca ) was photographed tail slapping. The Killer Whale is black in colour dorsally and white ventrally. Here you can see the ventral side of the Orca's tail flukes, which means it was swimming on its back. It seemed to be relaxing and playing as I watched it. The dark dorsal side makes it hard for prey to see it when it is coming up from below in deeper water. When prey is looking up in deeper water and towards the sun it sees the white ventral side of the killer whale.