When I moved back to Washington after 10 years in Alaska, I couldn’t believe the difference in the public view of a black and white whale. Down here, they are called orcas. In Alaska, they were called “killer whales.” They actually killed other whales. Down here, they are finally coming to see that as so many gray whales are being found dead. The orcas chase the grays into places were there is no food or actually attack them as someone recently caught on camera.

In Alaska, semi-professional photographer Art Hook had camera footage of orcas attacking a huge gray whale. When the gray whale opened his mouth, the orcas took out his tongue. Emery Tobin, editor of the Alaska Sportsman magazine, saw the film and questioned Art Hook: “You put some of that footage in twice, didn’t you?” Art admitted that he had. “It was such a short fight,” he said.

Fishermen in Alaska did shoot at orcas, not just for taking salmon out of their nets and breaking up their gear, thereby threatening their livelihood, but for what they had witnessed when orcas went after other bigger species of whales.

The general public, seeing trained orcas and getting involved with freeing an orca from captivity, has only recently begun to realize that there’s more about this creature that they didn’t know.

Perhaps now, they won’t be so quick to condemn the Alaskans who were more knowledgeable of the orcas’ dark side.

Lee Johnson, Federal Way