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Orca Rising

July 26, 2015

Orcas (Orcinus orca), also called killer whales, hunt prey such as penguins and seals that spend some of their time out of the water. They are known to spy-hop—hold their heads and upper bodies above the surface to look for food on land or on sea ice. Marine chemist Mak Saito, who captured the image in McMurdo Sound during a January 2009 expedition to study the proteomics of algae in Antarctica, says this Orca may have just been curious about new visitors—and their research gear—on the ice.(Photo by Mak Saito, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)