Hearing the Ocean, Hunting as a Team: teacher key

Orcas, grade 8 edition, written for 8th grade. Orcas are dolphins that hunt as teams, find food by sound and live in family pods led by mothers. Their groups differ, and scientists count how many there are.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why do orcas not follow one seasonal route each year?
   • They move to where the food is (answer)
   • They are afraid of warm water
   • They cannot swim far
2. What do orcas do in Norway's carousel feeding?
   • Herd herring into a ball and slap their tails (answer)
   • Hunt alone at night
   • Dive to the sea floor for shells
3. What is a dialect?
   • A group's own set of sounds (answer)
   • A kind of tooth
   • A way to rest
4. How many Southern Resident orcas did a July 2026 census count?
   • 2,500
   • 76 (answer)
   • 50,000
5. Why does sound matter so much to orcas?
   • Underwater daytime visibility is often only about fifty meters (answer)
   • They cannot see at all
   • They live in silent seas

Words

• ecotypes: habit groups
• echolocation: sensing by echoes
• dialect: a group's sounds
• blubber: thick body fat
• menopause: end of calves