For millions of years, the whales known as 'false killer whales' have roamed the deepest and warmest oceans of the Earth. Getting their name from a superficial similarity to the killer whale, these massive five-metre all-black whales live in social groups numbering, at times, into the hundreds. Even at birth they weigh more than a man, and fully grown they can weigh two tonnes.
Male and female, babies and the elderly, live in complex communities communicating by sound, living off squid and fish, occasionally entertaining sailors with displays of water-jumping as dramatic as those of dolphins - despite the whales' much greater size.
Hong Kong's only surviving example of the species Pseudorca Crassidens was not quite so lucky.
Barney the false killer whale died on October 10 after 12 years in a concrete tank in Ocean Park, reopening the debate about the park's policy on marine animals.
Although the park stresses its care is up to world standards, 100 Cetaceans - which include dolphins and whales - have died in the park since it opened in 1977, according to Suzanne Gendron, Ocean Park's director of zoological operations and education.
Barney died last month. Around mid-September, a few days after Typhoon York, staff noticed he was suffering from a fever. He was not interested in participating in performances, nor did he show much appetite. Blood tests and ultra-sound tests were then taken and indicated a bacterial infection, Ms Gendron said.