My marine bio teacher said it wasn't countershading either. Coutershading would be more "shading" with a more even dark to light thing, instead of a harsh break. (More bottlenose-y, less orca-y)

I dunno, I'm not particular. =P

I asked her what you'd call it then, if it wasn't countershading and she didn't know.

And congrats on graduating! (Just catching up on posts, heh.)

And thank you! :D

I found one paper already just through a quick Google Scholar search that talked about killer whale countershading, so it's referred to that way in the scientific literature. :)

I think what amused me most is that even SEA WORLD'S educational material calls it that - yet this person seems to have been taught otherwide. It's sad when your own organization can't make up its mind!

I've heard so much weird shit from educators. =P

I'd still love to go in there with a tape recorder going in my pocket some day and just walk around asking questions I know the answers to, and see what they say. I'd be more fun with an accomplice, though. :P

Oooh, oooh! Pick me! Pick me!

Come play! ;)

ME THREE! I wanna get dirt...

You can come play, too! :P

That is bass-akwards retarded.... I mean, I can see how it would differ from scientific community to scientific community... but personally, I think it's closer to countershading than disruptive coloring. I would see disruptive coloring more as prey coloration... easier to hide if you're all stripy! Kind of like a mackrel - They have that pretty blue/grey striping that would break them up up the water.
Orcas though, they're perfectly colored as predators, especially in darker northern waters... light on the bottom, dark on top.
But, that's just the way I see it... I'm probably super wrong.

I think it's a matter of splitting hairs, really. They are effectively countershaded - they are dark on the back and light on the bottom. And most respected marine institutions will tell you that they ARE countershaded. I spent three years with the Seattle Aquarium, in the heart of killer whale country, and we were taught that they were. I'm sure the anchor patch is disruptive coloration. But there's a reason that the black is on top and the white is on the bottom, and it's not that way randomly. The whole "gradation" thing is splitting hairs and semantics. That person's whole post reeked of someone who just wanted to show off their job at SeaWorld and look self-important. :P

Yeah, it did!!

The last time I was at SeaWorld there was an older woman from Education in Close Up and she was telling everyone that Tillikum was a female and Taima was her calf, and that their largest male was elsewhere. Regrettably, her back was turned while Tillikum swam around with a massive erection.

OMG, that's just sad! The monstrous pecs and huge dorsal weren't a clue to her that he was a male? :P

I just looked it up on the net and the explanation I read on countershading in killer whales (aimed at kids ;)) made perfect sense to me so it is odd someone who works at a aquarium would say that. :S

Basically, they say that because it's not a "graded change" and instead it changes abruptly from black to white, that means it's not countershading. Splitting hairs! It works the same!

Hope DL was fun ;) Your aladdin video just got put up on dc-torrents fyi.... and you were called Kristen. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It was indeed! :D

...bastards! :P *should change her name* Hey, at least I'm getting attention for it. Or at least my alter ego "Kristen" is. *attention whores* :P

:'( Your video isn't working for me and one other person(he's on a pc using wmp, i'm using vlc). For me it like.. starts burning through the file playing at 100-200k/sec but not recognizing and media in it. weirdz

That's kinda funky - it should work, and that file has worked in the past. It was posted to VF a long time ago - that file should work...
http://visionsfantastic.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=1121&c=43

the one posted on dctorrents with a 480mb avi file... like a full sized divx compressed version. did you give that out to anyone? heh

I don't remember doing that... I may have when I was on the old DC IRC chat, but I don't remember now. Either way, I deleted that .avi file ages ago to conserve space (and cause my old capture card was absolute crap).