Ain’t that a Shamu? Orca seen off Cape
Move over, “baby whale.” A killer whale has entered the local ocean wildlife chat.
An orca was recently spotted by a fisherman off Cape Cod, which is certainly not a common sighting in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
“You don’t see this every day, folks,” Jerry Leeman, a fisherman, said while recording a video of the massive killer whale about 40 miles east of Nantucket. “At least not in New England.”
Leeman, 40, told the Herald he has now seen six killer whales over the last 18 years on the water.
The fisherman with Blue Harvest Fisheries was haddock fishing over the weekend when he spotted the orca’s recognizable dorsal fin. He quickly grabbed his phone and took the video of the killer whale “going for a free meal.”
“It was pretty cool to see,” Leeman said. “Being a fisherman for 21 years, I grew up knowing that they’re the apex predators. You don’t get higher on the food chain than that.”
The orca was later identified as “Old Thom” by Massachusetts-based shark expert John Chisholm, who is with the New England Aquarium.
Old Thom has been spotted in the region in past years, and has a unique notch in his dorsal fin.
“He’s known to travel the Northwest Atlantic,” Chisholm said. “I’m not a whale expert, but I know how to identify individuals from markings and scars.
“His dorsal fin has a distinct notch in it, and you can see that notch here to identify it,” he added.
While spotting an orca off the Cape is not common, it’s “not unheard of,” Chisholm said.
“They’re migrating and looking for food like all animals do to survive,” he added. “Just like great white sharks, they move for food or for mating.”
Killer whales are most frequently spotted in the Pacific Northwest, along Norway’s coast, and in the Southern Ocean. Orcas have been known to attack and eat great white sharks in some parts of the world.
Great white sharks descend upon the Cape throughout the summer. There have not been any reports of orcas and sharks interacting around here.
“We haven’t seen any interactions between orcas and great whites here,” Chisholm said. “When orcas have showed up, it hasn’t changed the white sharks’ behavior at all. They’re obviously not perceived by white sharks as a threat for now.”