{"id":6901,"date":"2026-05-18T10:47:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/?p=6901"},"modified":"2026-05-18T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:17:08","slug":"antarcticas-pack-ice-killer-whales-and-how-polar-cruise-ships-can-help-protect-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/antarcticas-pack-ice-killer-whales-and-how-polar-cruise-ships-can-help-protect-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctica\u2019s pack ice killer whales \u2013 and how polar cruise ships are helping protect them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nature documentaries showcasing Antarctica\u2019s wildlife have often played a key role in inspiring people to fall in love with the White Continent. In recent years, few sequences have amazed viewers as much as the dramatic behaviour of pack ice killer whales, shown in the BBC\u2019s Frozen Planet<\/a> and Frozen Planet II series hunting seals by breaking up their ice floes with a remarkable behaviour known as \u2018wave washing\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke to Dr Leigh Hickmott, a whale biologist specialising in killer whales who worked as a consultant on Frozen Planet II and other series, about studying these remarkable creatures, the threats they face from climate change, and what the Antarctic cruise industry is doing to help to protect them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All killer whales are not the same<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u2018All my research is in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, in an area called Marguerite Bay off Adelaide Island,\u2019 says Leigh, who has been studying whales for nearly 30 years. \u2018In Antarctica, I’m interested in large-scale ecosystem change, looking at what\u2019s happening to the Antarctic ecosystem and using its apex consumers as indicators for the health of the entire food web.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dr Leigh Hickmott in his ‘happy place’, binoculars in hand searching for ‘pack ice’ killer whales near Adelaide Island (Image: Bertie Gregory)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His first research trips were in collaboration with National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions<\/a>, who have a long tradition of working with guest scientists, but his current research and filming expeditions all use sailboats to better access the pack ice where the killer whales live and hunt. (\u2018Being cheek by jowl with a bunk mate in a washing machine for a week,\u2019 is how he describes crossing the Drake Passage<\/a> by sailboat).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help better understand the pack ice killer whales, Leigh runs through the different types of orca found in Antarctica. Under an expert\u2019s eye, their classic black and white profile quickly shades into a variety of different whales, according to factors like their size, shape of the white eye patch, and grey saddle behind their dorsal fin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These subtleties might be hard for an amateur to discern, but the differences (called ecotypes) are big enough, Leigh suggests, that if they were different colours we\u2019d have no trouble recognising them as different subspecies, or even species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There are differences in the food that they eat, the size of their family units and how they vocalise and operate \u2013 differences in their culture. Even though they might look the same, you can have different ecotypes passing by one another in Antarctica and they\u2019ll have nothing to do with each other, to our knowledge.\u2019 Genetic analysis has shown that these different ecotypes split from each other around 150,000 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest ecotype is the Type A killer whale, which Leigh describes as having the classic black-and-white profile as well as being the largest orca, and is the variety most commonly seen by cruise ship travellers along the Western Antarctic Peninsula<\/a>. Their main prey are minke whales and elephant seals. The smallest killer whale is the Type C, which is restricted to the Ross Sea<\/a>, while the Type D is a Subantarctic form found more in the Southern Ocean, particularly around Cape Horn<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s the Type B killer whales that Leigh is excited by, especially the B1 ecotype: the pack ice killer whales made famous by Frozen Planet<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The life of a pack ice killer whale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Antarctica\u2019s pack ice killer whales are small in number but with a highly sophisticated lifestyle. They work together to produce subsurface waves to break up the ice that seals use to rest on, then more waves to wash the seals into the water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A pod of ‘pack ice’ killer whales take a good look at a Weddell seal, before ‘wave washing’ commences (Image: Leigh Hickmott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Killer whales use cultural transmission, passing information from adults down through the generations,\u2019 says Leigh, explaining how this hunting behaviour is taught. \u2018They have female-led societies, and individuals in some populations have been documented as being over 100 years old.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pack ice killer whale sons live with their mothers their entire life, with the females investing in their sons to increase their chances of siring calves. \u2018Mum and her daughters play a role in feeding the whole group all the time \u2013 it\u2019s all about catching prey and sharing prey. On average they need to consume about one 450 kg seal a day \u2013 equivalent to around a fifth of their body weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s a boom or bust culture, says Leigh. \u2018At certain times of year, with lots of seal pups for example, they\u2019ll take advantage and feed 24 hours a day, moving from one kill to the next. Then when you have lean times, they rely on the fat reserve of their blubber to get them through.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pack ice killer whales and the threat of climate change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These killer whales now face a future of very lean times, as climate change has turned pack ice into one of the most endangered ecosystems on the planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A ‘pack ice’ killer whale spyhops to inspect some potential prey, a group of crabeater seals (Image: Leigh Hickmott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we\u2019re in the field looking for pack ice killer whales, we try to go to the core areas that we know hold pack ice for longer throughout the summer and into the autumn, where the killer whales are foraging,\u2019 says Leigh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As pack ice breaks up and disappears more quickly, the animals have to travel further to find seals to feed on, expending more energy and using up their body fat. For adult females, who share their food with their sons or are producing milk to nurse their calves, that becomes a big issue. Raising offspring takes a long time in killer whale society \u2013 even gestation takes 18 months \u2013 so the increasing fragility of the ecosystem brings a long-term challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Killer whales are very wide ranging, but they\u2019re also creatures of habit. They won\u2019t necessarily diversify from some of their feeding behaviours. That\u2019s something that’s been seen in killer whale populations in other parts of the world,\u2019 says Leigh. The B1 population in the Western Antarctic Peninsula of around a hundred animals has recently been shown to be declining by about 5% a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Pack-ice killer whales have evolved this amazing hunting technique that involves them looking out of the water at their prey and then figuring out what they’re going to do with it. They’re incredibly efficient at wave-washing, but what we don’t know about is their success rates when they’re trying to catch seals in open water, so there\u2019s a chance that we might lose that wave-washing culture.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leigh cautions that the picture remains a complex one. Research has also shown that Antarctica\u2019s Type A killer whale population is actually increasing, as the minke whales<\/a> become less able to move into the ice to evade their hunters \u2013 but what this means for animals that are as long-lived as humans, and how interactions between ecotypes might play out is still to be fully understood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An acoustic protection for pack ice killer whales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One side effect of the reduced duration and extent of pack ice on the Peninsula is that some areas have become more accessible to polar cruise ships, especially those heading for the Antarctic Circle<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A mother ‘Gertie’ (right) and her teenage son ‘Kinzl’ (left), cruise through the waters of the ‘Gullet’ (Image: Leigh Hickmott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018When I first went to Antarctica, we could rarely get through the Gullet [a narrow channel between Adelaide Island and the mainland Peninsula] because it was so choked with ice and it would stay choked all season, and now we’re in a situation where it’s open every season.\u2019 For a cruise ship captain<\/a> that has the advantage of not having to navigate back into the Drake Passage and lose time and the opportunity for landings. But as Leigh points out, this is also a key area where pack ice killer whales are foraging at a crucial time of year where they’re building up their fat reserves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with his late colleague Ben Wallace, Leigh proposed an Acoustic Awareness Zone for the area to IAATO (the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators<\/a>), inspired by the speed restrictions for whales<\/a> already in place in the Gerlache Strait, as well as the guidelines used for watching killer whales in the Pacific Northwest. \u2018These animals are using communication in their foraging, choosing when to be silent and when to make calls to re-find one another. If you’re impacting that, that’s a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IAATO were immediately on board, and after discussions and trials with captains about how a scheme could operate, a mandatory Acoustic Awareness Zone<\/a> in this pack ice killer whale foraging ground began operating in the 2025\/26 season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitigation measures include allowing only one ship at a time in the area, reducing speed of vessels to a maximum of 10 knots, keeping engines to a minimum and completely avoiding the use of thrusters, and a strict no-go zone of 400 metres when whales are observed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pack ice killer whales can travel a hundred miles a day if they want. A pod seen around Adelaide Island one day could easily be spotted at the northern tip of the Peninsula the next. But the creation of the Acoustic Awareness Zone is a reminder that as the fragility of Antarctica is increasingly understood, stewardship must always be at the heart of tourism to the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Leigh, the Acoustic Awareness Zone points to a better way forward for ships operating in the area as a whole, and a wider acknowledgement that humans have made the world\u2019s  seas a noisy place for all whales \u2013 and for us to take measures to mitigate that disturbance wherever we can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This could be that beginning drop in the ocean of being mindful of the noise that we make, and being more gentle as we pass through Antarctica\u2019s stunning yet fragile landscapes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nature documentaries showcasing Antarctica\u2019s wildlife have often played a key role in inspiring people to fall in love with the White Continent. In recent years, few sequences have amazed viewers as much as the dramatic behaviour of pack ice killer whales, shown in the BBC\u2019s Frozen Planet and Frozen Planet II series hunting seals by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[55,56],"class_list":["post-6901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-and-inspiration","tag-whales","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAntarctica\u2019s pack ice killer whales \u2013 and how polar cruise ships are helping protect them - Swoop Antarctica Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An interview with orca expert Leigh Hickmott on how the polar cruise industry is helping to protect Antarctica's pack ice killer whales.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/antarcticas-pack-ice-killer-whales-and-how-polar-cruise-ships-can-help-protect-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Antarctica\u2019s pack ice killer whales \u2013 and how polar cruise ships are helping protect them - 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