A Recent Orca Sighting Recalls a Mystifying 1980s Phenomenon

In 1987, a group of killer whales off the northwestern coast of North America briefly donned salmon “hats,” carrying dead fish on their heads for weeks. Recently, a male orca known as J27, or “Blackberry,” was photographed in Washington’s Puget Sound with a salmon on his head, and many observers declared that the trend had returned.