Transient orcas and southern resident orcas both live in Puget Sound, and they’re identical to the untrained eye, but they’re so different from each other you could argue they should be classified as different species. Southern residents eat mostly salmon, while transients eat mammals. As I’ve mentioned, transients are infamous for skinning Hood Canal harbor seals like grapes and leaving their skins to float on the water, horrifying kayakers.

But before a harbor seal is skinned, how does the orca kill it? This one flings the harbor seal 80 feet into the air—see the :29 mark:

For what it’s worth, salmon-eating southern residents are endangered, but harbor-seal-eating transients aren’t.

According to Earth Touch News Network, this footage was taken yesterday. There’s animated gif of the toss over at Huffington Post.

Christopher Frizzelle was The Stranger's print editor, and first joined the staff in 2003. He was the editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and edited the story by Eli Sanders that won a 2012 Pulitzer...