The salmon hat craze was first observed in 1987 when a female orca in the Puget Sound area of the northeast Pacific was seen carrying a solitary dead fish on her nose. Within a few weeks the behavior was picked up by members of other pods, suggesting something about it must have appealed.

An especially popular killer whale put a dead fish on his head, in a throwback to a fashion last seen in the 1980s.

Though researchers have some best guesses, nobody seems to know for sure why exactly a killer whale in Washington state was wearing a dead fish as a hat.