A1 Stubbs

A1 "Stubbs". Photo scanned from Killer Whales by John Ford, Graeme Ellis and Kenneth Balcomb.

## Family

### Grand-Children

*A32 "Cracroft"*, *A44*, *A37 "Plumper"*, *A46 "Kaikash"*

### Great Grand-Children

*I42 "Skuna"*

**A1 "Stubbs"** was a ~47 year old female Northern Resident killer whale.

She was one of the first named killer whales during the 1970s as Michael Bigg and Graeme Ellis began their photo-identification system to record population data.

## History

### Early Life

Stubbs was estimated to have been born in 1927, attributed to the fact that she was mature whale when she was regularly sighted in the mid 1970s and without any young calves. In these sightings she was often seen traveling with other A1 pod whales such as A2 "Nicola", A3 "Wavy", and A30 "Tsitika".
She was first sighted in 1971 due to her distinctive dorsal fin. Biggs made note of her and when she was sighted in the year following, he noted that some killer whales could be identified with distinctive markings and injuries. While nicknamed "Stubbs", she was also sometimes referred to as "Tulip" as her injury showed some resemblance to the flower’s petal shape according to field notes. The injury to Stubbs' dorsal fin is thought to have been caused by a boat propeller.
### Calves

Stubbs was thought to have been the mother to A36 "Sophia" and A20 "Hardy". Through A36 "Sophia" she was the grandmother of A32 "Cracroft", A44, A37 "Plumper", and A46 "Kaikash". Stubbs was also the great-grandmother of I42 "Skuna".
### Death

Stubbs was last sighted in August 1974, and was noted as missing from subsequent sightings in September when the rest of A1 pod was encountered by researchers. In sightings preceeding her death, she was noted to be slower than the other members of her pod, taking quicker breaths to keep pace where she could. Her numerical identification of A1 was given posthumously.

## Gallery

Due to limited resources **A1 Stubbs's** gallery may have incorrectly assigned images based on sources. This can be due to quality of photographs or media, and/or angles that make it difficult to properly identified based on known markers. If a photo has been misattributed please feel free to remove from the gallery.

A1 "Stubbs". Photo scanned from Mind in the Waters by Joan McIntyre.A1 "Stubbs". Photo scanned from Killer Whales by John Ford, Graeme Ellis and Kenneth Balcomb.A1 "Stubbs" ID image. Date unknown. Photo provided by Ian MackAskie.
## Appearance

Stubbs' dorsal fin was severed at the top as it was thought she had been hit by a boat's propeller. The fin was ragged and had several 'points' to it, where some accounts note it looked like a tulip flower.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hoyt, E. (2019). Orca: The Whale Called Killer (Fifth Edition, Revised and Expanded ed.). Firefly Books.
2. ↑ Killer whale. (n.d.). Archived Copy. https://web.archive.org/web/20091228193215/http://www.killerwhale.org/index2.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Northern Resident community. (n.d.). Blogspot. http://northenresidentorcas.blogspot.com/
4. ↑ Ellis, G. M., Ford, J. K. B., & Towers, J. R. (2007). Northern Resident Killer Whales in British Columbia Photo-Identification Catalogue 2007.