My thanks go to:
Alexandra Morton. Her book “Listening to Whales” was my ultimate inspiration to write a story from the orcas’ point of view.
The scientists Dr. Paul Spong and his wife Helena Symonds (Hanson Island/ Canada), for their long-lasting research work on the communication of the orcas, for their informative homepage, for providing the OrcaLive-Community, where whale fans from all over the world have the daily opportunity to put up-to-date news and links online and where the orcas’ calls are broadcast live (see appendix), and last but not least for the fantastic foreword which they have kindly provided for my story.
U'mista Cultural Society in Alert Bay/Canada for their magnanimous permission to use the Indian legend by Henry and Helen Hunt.
Jan van Twillert. He gave me a lot of helpful information and corrected the orca family tree. His homepage (see appendix) was indispensable.
My husband, Dr. Hubertus Thomas, who contributed a lot of good ideas and who offered constructive criticism bravely, even though he was well aware of my potential reactions. 
Christine Sawinski, for her tireless proofreading and her honest opinions on my manuscript and the great translation.
Ilka Sampel and Leona Niedzwiedz for their help with the correction and Leona for the fantastic photo of an orca which I was allowed to use, not to forget her many heartening e-mails.
Friederike Braun, because she devoted her time to this story. All those who encourage me in my work.
My further thanks go to: Julia Neider (WDC-Germany), various visitors to the OrcaLive Community, my daughter, who made up the names of the two main characters and my son, whose eye adorns the back of the cover.
Homepage: www.doris-t.de
Imprint
second edition © 2017
© Doris Thomas, Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm/Germany, 2010
Original title: „Mit den Augen der Orcas“, 2009
Illustrations and text
Photo of wild orcas with kind permission by Leona Niedzwiedz
All logos in the appendix by courtesy
Production and publishers/Herstellung und Verlag: BoD – Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt, D
ISBN: 9783-746050546
Even for those who love Nature, there seems too often a barrier that keeps us from fully understanding nature’s wild characters. Only through our imagination, can we travel to the other side.
Doris Thomas, through her charming story, Through the Eyes of the Orcas, gives us this rare chance to experience, for a time, the world of the orca. Personally, after many years of learning about orcas, their amazing behaviours and wonderful sounds and cultures, we are also acutely aware that the actions of humans have created dangerously precarious conditions, throughout the world’s oceans, for all who live within.
Whales, both large and small, are still hunted, their food is disappearing from over fishing and habitat degradation at alarming rates, their world is being poisoned from man-made toxins, the ocean is inundated with industrial noise, and global warming is intensifying the pace of decline. The scariest part of this reality is that all this has happened within just a few lifetimes, before we have any chance to fully explore, experience and understand the ocean realm.
Ms Thomas’ book is very timely for it generates and fosters a vital empathy and caring for this alien but wonderful world beyond the edge of land.
By Helena Symonds & Paul Spong
May 2008
Written as a foreword for
Through the Eyes of the Orcas by Doris Thomas
Dolphin! If I could see with your eyes,
what would I discover?
Grey is your world, colours are alien to you.
Perhaps thus you see things
as they really are.
Would I perceive reality?
Dolphin! If I could hear with your ears,
what would I discern?
Silence is unknown to the sea.
Sounds are everywhere, even coming from you.
The echo shapes an image.
Would I listen to the truth?
Dolphin! If I could talk with your voice,
what would I say?
Each sound has a function.
A multitude of information.
Vital!
Would I be able to lie?
Dolphin! If I could swim with you,
what would I experience?
Weightless. Boundless.
Without home.
Without the burden of possessions.
Would I find the meaning of life?
Prologue(After a legend of the Walas of the Mamalilikala clan, a tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw Indians, by Henry and Helen Hunt, courtesy of U’mista Cultural Society.)
A long time ago, there were some young boys practicing shooting with their bows and arrows. They were paddling in small dugout canoes, out in front of their village called ‘Mimkwamlis, known as Village Island. Then, they saw at the point, a pod of killer whales playfully swimming by. The whales were surfacing and spraying water from their blowholes.
The young boys looked at the killer whales and started to discuss shooting at the whales to test their shooting abilities. The boys decided the dorsal fin would be the target and this is what they would aim for. One of the boys shot his bow and arrow and hit his mark, wounding one of the whales.
This made the whale very sad. Then, the family of whales became very angry and swam towards the children. The young boys began to paddle quickly in their small canoes and were dragging them up the beach as fast as they could. One of the killer whales caught up and was right behind the boy who had shot the whale. When he reached the beach he tried to jump off the canoe and run up the beach. As he landed on shore so did the whale. At that moment the whale’s dorsal fin turned into a man and caught the boy. The man grabbed him by his Achilles tendons and said to the boy,
“As long as you live, you will never be able to walk properly and you will always suffer in pain, from the muscle in your heels being pulled out, for I am the Killer Whale".
From that day forward the boy and his people respected the killer whales because they were human also, and had the spiritual power to transform. The boy’s clan named ‘Walas’ then took the crest of the killer whale and painted it on their house fronts, they also composed songs and dances to honor the whale. Still today, the killer whale is respected and regarded as being the same spirit as man.
(English original)
Killer Whales 
End of school. “At last!” Lisa sighed, “I thought today would never end.” She swung her heavy schoolbag over her shoulder. Peter also grabbed his backpack. “You’re right, but there is still such a lot of work to do. Old Wittberg condemned us to do this presentation, remember? Can you tell me why you volunteered for THIS topic of all things?”
Lisa grinned. “Killer whales? Doesn’t it sound cool? What’s the problem? I thought things couldn’t get bloody enough for you. Killer sounds really promising. Hopefully this means that I don’t have to do all the work as per usual with our presentations.” Peter answered this snide remark with an unmistakeable grunt. Lisa patted his shoulder and laughed: “It’s ok. So far we’ve always managed. And with this crappy weather we have nothing better to do, anyway.”
Together they headed for home. Lisa opened her umbrella and Peter pulled the hood of his jacket over his head. The two children attended Junior High School. They lived next door to each other and spent a lot of time together. Whereas their classmates had started avoiding the other sex, this had not occurred to Lisa and Peter. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Peter had never cared particularly about being “cool” and Lisa was not “ladylike”.
Together they walked to school and back every day, helped each other with their homework and studied for exams. When two pupils got an assignation it was understood that they would do it together. Once again Lisa had volunteered to do the presentation with Peter, even though she was well aware that he liked to shirk his responsibilities and that she would be preparing the major part of the presentation on her own. But they always had a lot of fun and usually Peter came up with a lot of amazing ideas. This really made up for his laziness.
“I’ll be at your house around three”, Peter said when they had almost reached home. “Ok, but please dig out everything you can find about killer whales. And…” she raised her arms as for a quick prayer. “…don’t forget to bring the stuff along when you come over!”
Peter rolled his eyes. But he knew that Lisa’s reproof was not entirely unwarranted. It would not be the first time for him to turn up on Lisa’s doorstep empty-handed. When his friend disappeared behind her front door, he had to smile as he walked on. He was sure that Lisa would provide a load of books and Internet printouts later on, so why exert himself?
Three o’clock in the afternoon. Lisa looked at her watch. When had Peter ever been on time? She sorted out the books on animals and laid out her Internet printouts carefully. It was amazing what she had been able to find on the various web pages of the societies and organisations. The information about appearance and size of the whales tended to repeat itself, but sometimes she came across some facts that seemed unusual. She would go through the lot with Peter.
She had chosen four marker pens in different colours so that they could start right away. Ten minutes later the doorbell rang and Lisa’s mother opened the door for Peter. “What kind of weather is this you’re bringing along, Peter?” she asked jokingly and Peter peeled off his wet jacket. “It’s raining like mad! Darn, now the poster is wet!” He shook the raindrops off the paper and wiped it with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
With the wrinkled poster under his arm he listlessly climbed the stairs leading to the first floor. Lisa was waiting for him with a grin on her face:
“Oh, you did actually bring something. Surprise, surprise!” Triumphantly Peter raised the poster and waved it around. “I’m marvellous, right?” he stated proudly. “You’re a genius!” Lisa stated and took the poster. “Looks like your booty got a nasty bashing. You didn’t think of using a plastic bag, by any chance?”
Peter pretended to be offended and shrugged his shoulders. When he saw that Lisa had found a place to hang up the poster he grabbed the sellotape and handed her four strips.
“I don’t know what you want; it still looks quite good, doesn’t it?” “Well, so-so. In any case we can’t show it at school anymore.” The paper had become quite wavy with the raindrops and the poster was no longer even. The killer whale, which was swimming towards the beholder under water, had become slightly blurred and its contours grew hazy with the up-and-down of the paper.
While Lisa was still checking whether the poster was straight, Peter approached her desk and noticed the pile of information material. “Are you crazy?” he snorted, “You don’t seriously want to read through all this, do you?” Lisa darted an angry glance at him. Instead of answering she pressed half of the printouts into one of his hands and a green marker pen into the other.
“Get a move on!” she snarled at Peter. He sank onto her couch wearily. He quickly checked the number of sheets in his hand and groaned. Lisa grimaced. Then she sat down on her desk chair with a jerk, grabbed the second half of the printouts and started marking individual text passages.
Peter capitulated.
Lisa wouldn’t relent. This was very obvious from her pinched expression. He accepted his fate and studied the information he was holding in his hand. After reading a few lines he dared to raise his head and glance at Lisa. She cleared her throat pointedly and continued reading. Obviously there was no escape for him.
After a few more lines he raised his head again and gazed out of the window. The rain was pattering against the pane and it felt like it was night already, because it was so dark outside. The water was hitting the roof above their heads. Because of the sloping ceiling the room felt more like a shelter than a room in a house. The rain was pattering onto the tiles and the water was rushing down the slant of the roof above them. The gutter ran directly underneath the big, sloping roof window. The water was burbling into the drain incessantly and, following the slant, pouring down towards the right edge of Lisa’s outside wall, where it disappeared into the downspout in a wild eddy. A continuous swooshing and gurgling could be heard.
Lisa did not appear to be bothered by all this noise at all.
Fully concentrated she was studying page by page, occasionally using the marker to highlight certain text passages. Peter was dozing while Lisa kept reading diligently.
“Did you know that killer whales can become up to almost ten metres long? Amazing!”
Peter lifted his head wearily. “Oh, yes, quite big, those beasts.” Lisa shook her head uncomprehendingly. “You do know that they are not fish, don’t you?“ she asked mockingly.
“Of course I know that. They are mammals. They breathe through lungs and therefore must surface regularly. They have warm blood, approximately 37° C like us. They bear living sweet little babies and suckle them with milk … blah blah blah.”
“You see”, Lisa hissed, “so much for sweet little babies. It says here that a newborn killer whale is up to 2.50 metres long. So much for being little. And they weigh around 180 kilograms already. Just imagine! I weigh only 41 kilos.” Peter nodded appreciatively: “Wow, you’re right, that is awesome. The poor mother whale.” He screwed up his face, as if twisted with pain, and made a sound of exertion. “Press! Press! Press!” Lisa rolled her eyes. “Boys!”
Once again she became engrossed in her papers. Even Peter glanced at the pile of information, hoping to find some unusual facts. “Oh no”, he exclaimed suddenly, “Forget about the killer whales. They are really called orcas or sword whales (in German: Schwertwale).” “Well”, countered Lisa, “here it says that they are also referred to as killer whales, because they sometimes feed on other mammals. For a long time they were even considered to be dangerous man-eaters.”
“And do they really eat us?”
“It doesn’t look like it. There isn’t a single proven case where an orca has attacked a human being. At least not in the wild. But there were a few incidents with animals in captivity, some of them even with a lethal ending. But it is a fact that there is a subgroup of orcas who actually attack dolphins, seals, sea lions and even large whales. They are called transients, which means roaming whales. Apparently they are really vicious. Disgusting!”
Peter’s eyes widened: “Really? Sounds exciting. Do you have any pictures?”
He jumped to his feet, hurried towards Lisa’s desk and grabbed the books. Lisa gaped at him. She would not have thought Peter capable of such enthusiasm. Peter found a photo in the third book, in which an orca was hurling a seal into the air. Full of triumph he presented the photo to his friend. “But most of the killer - er - sword whales feed on fish. Salmon, as far as I know”, Lisa remarked on glancing at the photo in disgust. “Why are they actually called sword whales?” Peter asked himself and went back to the couch. He remembered a text passage, which he had marked previously. When he had found it he read out loud: “The sword whales get their name from their giant, sword-like dorsal fin, which can become up to two metres high among male animals.”
He got up, raised his hand and tried to indicate a height of two metres. Both children turned their eyes to the poster on the wall “Wow!” they exclaimed in unison.
The lights flickered for a moment, while lightning flashed brightly and shortly afterwards thunder crashed outside. “Hey, that was close”, Peter remarked, while Lisa moved her swivel chair away from the window surreptitiously. Of course she did not want to admit that she found heavy thunderstorms somewhat eerie. To be afraid of thunderstorms was typical for girls and therefore completely uncool.
They both went back to their papers. Somehow a competition had started about who would be next in finding some interesting facts.
Suddenly Peter jumped to his feet again. He planted himself in front of the poster and pointed at the open mouth of the whale. “Just look at those teeth. Any idea, how long they are?” Lisa shook her head. “Each one is about 7.6 centimetres long with a diameter of 2.5 centimetres. Whales have 10 to 14 teeth on each side of their jaws, that is - er…” “40 to 56 teeth altogether”, Lisa interrupted. “Exactly”, Peter agreed, “that’s an awesome set of choppers.”
There was a vivid flash of lightning, immediately followed by rumbling thunder.
Lisa tried to concentrate on her papers once more. “There are orcas who live in close family units. That sounds quite congenial. They are talking about an area near Vancouver Island in Canada here. Some scientists have been conducting research on orcas there for the last 30 years. Dr. Paul Spong and his wife Helena Symonds live there in the OrcaLab, their research station on Hanson Island, and listen to the whales via loudspeakers around the clock. They also note all reports about sightings. They research the orcas, which are called the Northern Residents. Northern, because they live between the northern half of Vancouver Island and the mainland. Resident, because they are more or less settled there. Look, here’s a map.”
She showed Peter the piece of paper. “Well, alright.” Peter replied slightly bored. “They have counted 233 orcas there. They know each individual animal and for some of the whales they know the complete story of their lives. Cool!”
“Don’t you have anything more exciting?” Peter asked. Lisa studied the map, then continued reading. “Here’s something you will like. A lot of the orcas die during the first year of their life. I am sure they are eaten by sharks. What do you think? It seems that it hits mostly the firstborn.” Peter shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps they are too stupid to look after their offspring.”
“Possibly. It says here that the year before last another one-year-old animal disappeared, a female. But something else must have happened here. The mother was never seen again, either. It was her second offspring, anyway, not her firstborn. Wait, here is something else. The young one was initially seen with another group in the same area. Strangely, at the beginning of this year it was found with the Southern Residents all of a sudden. As a rule the Southern Residents and the Northern Residents don’t even meet. The scientists were able to identify the young orca without any doubt. The little one seems to utter a special sound, a call which had also been heard from her mother. That’s what is says here, anyway. Also she has a light patch behind her dorsal fin … wait …”, Lisa went through the pile of papers on her desk, “… the patch is called saddle. In this patch there is a very distinctive dark colouring shaped like a C, similar to a slender crescent. They call the young female SPRINGER.”
“And what’s so exciting about all this?” Peters screwed up his mouth.
“Just wait! They want to try and return the young one to its family in the north. There are a lot of islands in this area.” Lisa once more showed the map to Peter. “Springer doesn’t seem to be able to find the way back on her own. It is a miracle to the scientists, anyway, how the little one has survived without her mother so far. Now they are planning to bring her back to her family to increase her chances of survival for the winter.”
“How are they going to do it? They can’t possibly put such a big whale into a bag and carry it – hey presto – somewhere else”, Peter asked incredulously. Lisa continued reading: “It doesn’t say. I am sure they will have a plan. Here’s something else: Cool, the scientists have placed microphones in the water in the area around the research lab on Hanson Island and even transmit the sounds live on the Internet.”
Another flash of lightning illuminated the room, followed by booming thunder. The sudden illumination created capricious patterns on the wavy poster. For a split second the whale seemed to be moving.
Involuntarily Peter shrank back. Lisa also seemed to have noticed the uncanny change in the poster. “I found a CD with whale songs in my brother’s room”, she said without averting her gaze from the poster. Peter stared at the whale on the wall: “Put it on!”
Lisa turned around and switched on the CD-player. Then she got up and joined Peter. Gradually the orcas’ sounds could be heard. Softly at first: “Eeeoooooo.” The pitter-patter of the rain was still louder than the recording. They were both intrigued and watched the orca in the poster.
“Eeeooooooo!” The volume of the recording increased. Gradually the voice of the whale dominated the noise of the thunderstorm.
“Eeeooooooo!” It made Lisa’s flesh crawl. Peter grabbed the fabric of his jeans with his fingers.
“Eeeoooooo!”
There was an enormous crash as lightning struck nearby. It was more than one flash of lightning. The first flash blinded the children. They closed their eyes reflexively. With the second and third flash Peter and Lisa stared at the poster in confusion. And they were sure that the whale had moved. They opened their eyes wide.
Was the whale moving towards them? Was it possible? There was another flash of lightning and they were able to distinguish a definite movement.
But this was impossible!
The next flash of lightning was so bright that they once again had to close their eyes. The mighty thunder startled them. All of a sudden there was a power cut. For a moment it was completely dark.
Absolute blackness made their surroundings disappear. Time seemed to stand still. Lisa and Peter held their breath.
“Eeeoooooo!”
All had Changed 
“Lisa, where are you?” Silence. “I feel funny. Lisa?” No answer. “Lisa?”
“Peter? What happened? I can’t see anything.”
Lisa’s voice reassured Peter slightly. “Nor can I. I feel as if I am floating. I can’t feel the ground beneath my feet.” “Nor do I. Can you see anything?”
“No.”
They were surrounded by darkness.
Both Lisa and Peter held their breath. Seconds passed, then minutes. Surprisingly they both did not feel the need to fill their lungs with air. They were underwater.
“Eeeoooooo!”