Orca seen wearing a salmon hat for first time since 1980s. Why do they do it?

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – One fashion trend from the '80s may be making a comeback – at least with killer whales. An orca has been spotted wearing a salmon hat for the first time since 1987.

On October 25, a viral photo of a Southern Resident orca at Point No Point, Washington, was spotted with a salmon on its head – familiarly known as a "salmon hat."

According to the Orca Network, a Washington nonprofit, the salmon hat phenomenon was first spotted in the late 1980s among the endangered Southern Resident population. The orcas would wear dead salmon on their heads, carrying the fish around.

“More recently, a single photo of an adult male orca with a salmon perched on his head has sparked a firestorm of memes and media attention about the retro trend returning,” Orca Network program manager Stephanie Raymond said.

The orca in the photo was identified by researchers as J27 Blackberry, who isn't the most social orca in the pod, according to Raymond.

“Blackberry is an interesting guy. He travels, usually with his sister, and he's not the most gregarious of the Southern Residents,” Raymond added. “With Blackberry, I can think of a couple times when he's made a close pass to shore, or a close pass to a boat that I was on…but he's not one that's just going to come right up and be your friend.”

While some orcas have been seen wearing salmon hats, experts are not sure why they engage in the behavior.

“Within each group, they have a lot of different social behaviors, and one of the things that we have observed in multiple different groups are these sort of cultural trends or social trends, just like we have fads of one year, scarves are in season, and one year pointed toes versus box toes or something like that," Raymond said.

In 1987, the salmon hat trend was seen among multiple members of the Southern Resident orca population, which are endangered. The trend seemed to last a few weeks, spreading from one pod to the next over the summer before disappearing.

"Why do they do that? We really have no idea. Why does any trend exist that humans do, right?” Raymond said.

It may not have even been intentional this time, Raymond explained. The salmon may have been found in a kelp bed as the orca was engaging with the environment, or the fish could have just been there for a split second before being eaten.

“My understanding from the photographer is it was just the single frame. In the next frame, [the salmon] wasn't there. So, it was one of those once-in-a-million shots," said Raymond.

While salmon hats are a former trend, experts say there isn't enough evidence after the October sighting to call it a revival.

“These whales have a paparazzi following. So, anytime they're around, there are literally hundreds of people on the shores watching with cameras. And if this was actually a trend happening again, we would have lots and lots of evidence to support that, and we're just not seeing it,” Raymond said.

Dr. Deborah Giles, a science and research director with the Wild Orca nonprofit and a resident scientist at the University of Washington, said the abundance of salmon right now could be part of the reason the salmon hat is back in vogue.

“I kind of think that it probably has something to do with a behavior that they may engage at times of higher prey abundance — meaning they're not having to forage as much in order to get their basic metabolic needs met,” Giles said. “It may just be that they're getting enough to eat at that day, so they could be hanging on to that fish in order to kind of retain it to share with another pod member.”

The Southern Resident population of orcas was listed as an endangered species in 2005, when there were 88 orcas in the world. Now, there are around 73 and they are among the top eight imperiled species, Giles said.

And one season of abundant salmon isn't enough to guarantee the species' survival.

“These whales are not getting enough to eat throughout their entire range, throughout the entire year. We need to be making sure that we're increasing and recovering wild salmon stocks…if we do a better job of making sure that these whales have enough to eat every day throughout their entire range, we may be rewarded with getting to see some of these behaviors like whales wearing salmon hats," Giles said.