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LiveScience
LiveScience
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

'More questions than answers': Experts baffled by Alaskan mammal-eating orcas spotted near Seattle

A large black-and-white whale with a tall dorsal fin swims in the shimmering gray waters in front of a sunset city skyline. .

Scientists are scratching their heads over why three mammal-eating orcas turned up in Seattle waters in March, having apparently traveled 1,500 to 2,000 miles (2,400 to 3,200 kilometers) south from Alaska.

"It's extremely rare to have previously undocumented killer whales show up in local waters, so it's been very exciting to see them, and right now we have more questions than answers," Monika Wieland Shields, the director of the Orca Behavioral Institute, a Seattle-based non-profit research organization, told Live Science in an email.

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