Trendsetting orcas bringing ‘80s fashion back to the Puget Sound: salmon hats
These orcas have a killer fashion sense.
Always head of the curve, blackfish off the West Coast are bringing back a fad that hasn’t been seen in the last four decades: salmon hats.
The ocean’s biggest bullies have been spotted wearing dead salmon on their heads, a bizarre trend that they left dead in the water 37 years ago, according to a report.
Trendsetter Blackberry the orca was papped sporting the fishy headpiece last month in the South Puget Sound in southwest Washington — shocking local photographers and researchers.
An image of the spectacle shows Blackberry expertly balancing the massive salmon close to her blowhole as she tears through the surface of the water.
“We saw one with a fish on its head. So that was fun,” Deborah Giles, science and research director for the non-profit organization Wild Orca, told New Scientist Tuesday.
In the 1980s, the stylish sushi trend spread through the local orca community like wildfire after just one female was spotted carrying a fish on her nose in Puget Sound, researchers said.
The dead salmon hat trend of 1987, which also originated in Puget Sound, started with just one female orca who began carrying the dead fish on her nose.
Within the next five to six weeks, the entirety of her pod — and two others — were following suit.
And much like the craze around hair bows this summer, the fad ended just as quickly as it began — and stayed underground until last month.
The dead salmon hat trend may be making a return due to a surplus of the fish population in the estuary system, researchers theorized in the Orca Network Whale Sighting Report.
Much like humans, orcas are known to indulge in changing fashions and fads within their communities — the most famous of which involves the whales intentionally sinking yachts off European coastlines by attacking their rudders.
It’s in the orcas’ nature to follow trends, especially for the younger ones, according to Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute.
“It’s a very sophisticated thing to do something for no purpose other than that it amuses you,” said Rose.
How far the trend will take off is yet to be seen, but if history can tell us anything — these orcas have only just started playing with their food.
