07/07/2026
One of the biggest—and most persistent—myths marine parks like (sea world) have repeated for decades is that collapsed dorsal fins happen “all the time” in wild killer whale populations. Simply put, they don’t. Adult male killer whales in the wild are known for their tall, upright dorsal fins. While bent or partially collapsed fins can occur due to injury, illness, genetics, or other natural causes, they’re uncommon. In captivity, however, collapsed dorsal fins are dramatically more prevalent. *NOTE. just because this keeps coming up in the comments below. Yes I know about Port and Starboard (which are wild orcas) who have collapsed dorsals and there has been a lot of research into why. They fall into injury, illness and genetics category and are considered the rare or uncommon category that I mentioned above.
After thousands of hours on the water photographing and spending time with wild killer whales, I have never seen a fully collapsed dorsal fin on a wild orca.
