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What We All Get Wrong About Killer Whales

A great writer who swam with them debunks myths — and King Charles has just honored him for his work

Janice Harayda
Thought Thinkers
5 min readJan 4, 2025

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Photos of Erich Hoyt and orcas in the wild
Erich Hoyt and orcas in the wild / whaletrips.org (Fragebogen)

For years, my old friend Erich Hoyt has been telling me that orcas get a bad rap: They’re not the serial killers of the seas that some people imagine.

I listened, and not just because Erich once swam with orcas in the wild. He’s an award-winning author, naturalist, and science writer who’s one of the world’s leading experts on whale and dolphin conservation.

A few days ago, others gained a reason to listen, too: In his New Year’s Day honors, King Charles made Erich an O.B.E., or Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for his writing and services to marine conservation. And fortunately for anyone who loves great science writing, a lot of his books are in print not just in the U.K., where he lives, but worldwide.

Literary flair and scientific rigor

I discovered Erich’s gift for nature writing when I read his first book, Orca: The Whale Called Killer. With an exceptional blend of literary flair and scientific rigor, Erich melds memoir and journalism in an unforgettable account of his seven summers of studying (and sometimes swimming with) orcas in Vancouver, Canada.

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Thought Thinkers
Thought Thinkers

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Janice Harayda
Janice Harayda

Written by Janice Harayda

Critic, novelist, award-winning journalist. Former book editor of the Plain Dealer and book columnist for Glamour. Words in NYT, WSJ, and other major media.

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