A Whale's Guide: How to Wear a Hat

This week's blog has been written by ORCA Ocean Conservationist, Holly!

A crucial rule for whales wearing hats is that it must complement what’s happening inside their mouths - whether baleen or teeth.

Side note: This marks one of the primary differences in the morphologies of the two distinct whale groups: Mysticetes (baleen whales) and Odontocetes (toothed whales). Baleen is a comb-like structure made from keratin. It hangs from the upper jaw of mysticises (think inside out moustache), and works as a sieve allowing these whales to filter feed. When a whale takes in a mouthful of water containing small krill or zooplankton, it closes its mouth and pushes the water out through the baleen plates. The food items are trapped by the baleen and then swallowed, while the water is expelled. Odontocetes, on the other hand, simply have teeth, which they use to catch and eat larger individual prey items such as fish, squid, and marine mammals. You might also notice toothed whales have quite the bulbous forehead. This is a specialised organ called a melon, which is used in echolocation to navigate and hunt by emitting and receiving sound waves.

OK? Back to the hats.

If you’re a baleen whale, you might want to consider sporting a seaweed hat. This trendy accessory, known as ‘kelping,’ made its fashion debut in 2007. Any whale can pull off the seaweed hat - just ask the grey or right whales. They’ve been observed interacting with seaweed! However, if there had to be one kelping icon, it would undoubtedly be the humpback whale. The seaweed hat is so popular that humpbacks from the northern and southern hemispheres, who have never even crossed paths, have been observed kelping. So, what makes it such a popular accessory amongst our baleen whales? Well shockingly, kelping is probably not a whale's attempt to bring out the colour in their eyes. And although we can’t ask the whales (thankfully, or I’d need a new blog topic), researchers believe that whales wear slippery, slimy seaweed on their heads because the sensation simply feels good. Look good, feel good.

For toothed whales, wearing a hat is somewhat of a bold fashion statement, and I can’t blame them. You wouldn't want to cover it up if you had something as cool as a melon. However, a particular toothed whale species has dipped their fins into the hat-wearing world, and that is the iconic orca—specifically, the southern resident killer whales in the northeast Pacific Ocean. In the summer of 1987, a female orca started wearing a dead salmon on her head, kickstarting the ‘salmon hat’ trend. Being the fashion icon that she was, within weeks, her pod and two others were also sporting the salmon hat. By the next summer, this look was so last year, and the salmon hat was no more. You could argue that orcas lack originality when it comes to fashion. The salmon hat is a clear example of a cultural fad within a society – a behaviour learned from one another and shared among the population. But who are we to judge? We humans do the same. If celebrities began wearing their dinner on their heads, it wouldn't be long before we all followed suit.

As evident from this light-hearted blog, I particularly enjoy the fact that some whales wear hats, but what I find even more enjoyable are the likely reasons behind it: because it feels good or because they saw their pals wearing one and wanted to try it themselves. It’s simple, and it’s something we can relate to as humans. It serves as a reminder that we’re not so different from them, and emphasises why we must continue to work hard to protect them. Their multifaceted and complex cultures warrant protection.