3rd International Naming Contest – Orca Male “Gunnar” (SN068)

Our third international naming contest to name an orca that migrates between Scotland and Iceland started on the 25th of May, 2018, and was held parallel to the annual Orca Watch Week in Scotland, as an online event that was open to the public. This time, we decided to name Scottish/Icelandic orca male SN068, who is likely the oldest offspring of the most famous Scottish-Icelandic migrant, orca female Vendetta/Mousa (SN069). We have records of SN068 since January 2014 – as part of Vendetta’s group he is a regular throughout the Icelandic winter season, and often subsequently spotted in Scotland during the spring and summer. When the contest started, SN068 had been last spotted in Iceland in December 2017 and January 2018.

In our search for a male orca name we gratefully received support from several organizations both in Iceland and the UK, such as Living Seas NW Highlands / the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Caithness Sea Watching, Shetland Wildlife, Sea Watch Foundation, Láki Tours, the Radisson Blu 1919 Hotel Reykjavík, Whales of Iceland, the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, Special Tours Iceland and British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

The same jury as in the first two contests had to choose 4 out of 270 names suggested by the public, resulting in the finalists “Hopper”, “Murphy”, “Gunnar”, and “Dave”. These names were given for public vote in the second part of the contest, which closed on the 3rd of June, 2018. 1145 voters decided over the winner, and the name “Gunnar” won the competition, suggested by Lisa Dry as a “Viking saying that means brave and bold”. She chose to adopt juvenile Rainbow (SN004) as a reward.