In the waters off southern New England, the sighting of a killer whale is rare. Rarer still is the spotting of one as close as 12 miles from shore.
But yesterday, the New England Aquarium confirmed that a whale photographed Monday by a charter boat captain fishing for tuna about 15 miles northeast of Chatham was indeed an orca. And his name is Old Tom.
Aquarium researchers consulted Jack Lawson of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and were able to confirm the 25-foot-long whale’s identity due to the unique features on his dorsal fin, which is more than 6 feet tall, said Tony LaCasse, an aquarium spokesman.
“It’s extremely rare to see an orca in New England waters,” LaCasse said. “It happens only a couple of times in a decade.”
In 2014, an orca pod was spotted about 150 miles off Nantucket, he said. But typically, when they are seen in the waters off New England, it’s in Georges Bank off the coast of Maine, LaCasse said.
Their primary habitat is around Labrador and Newfoundland.
“So a visit into southern New England waters is extremely unusual,” he said.
Aquarium whale researchers have seen Old Tom in the Bay of Fundy between Maine and New Brunswick.
“Old Tom has been there almost every year since 2008,” LaCasse said.
He probably weighs 5 or 6 tons and has never been seen with another whale, though orcas often are seen in pods of four or so, he said.
And although Chatham is known for its shark sightings, La Casse said, Old Tom is probably more interested in small whales known as minke, dolphins and school fish.
“They have varied diets and can hunt other whales,” he said. “They’re really the wolf packs of the ocean.”
But they pose no danger to humans, he said.
