He’s back!
The familiar killer whale “Old Thom” has returned to the waters off the Cape, as local fishermen spotted the well-known orca this week.
The male killer whale is occasionally seen off the Massachusetts coast this time of year. He was spotted in Stellwagen Bank a couple months ago, and now he was seen off the southern Cape — east of Nantucket.
This week’s sighting by Sureshot Charters comes almost two years to the day from his visit in 2024. The fishermen on Wednesday were out looking for tuna when they spotted Old Thom about 10 miles off Nantucket.
“Never know what you will come across when you are offshore!” posted Sureshot Charters, which is based out of Yarmouth.
Captain Shawn Deane told the Herald that he has been fishing around the Cape for more than 20 years, and this was the first time that he saw an orca.
“You don’t see that every day,” Deane said. “We see tons of humpbacks, right whales, dolphins, but we had never seen a killer whale. It was definitely a cool experience.”
Old Thom is sometimes seen with a pod of dolphins, but he was seen swimming alone, Deane said.
The orca is easily recognizable due to his unique dorsal fin with its distinct notch.
“Old Thom” was seen about 10 miles off Nantucket. (Shawn Deane Sureshot Charters photo)
Researchers have been tracking him around the region for more than a decade.
“Every time he’s spotted, it’s so exciting,” said shark researcher John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist in the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. “He’s really an interesting specimen.”
Later in the summer and fall, Old Thom is usually spotted in the northern Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy — often accompanied by a pod of white-sided dolphins.
Chisholm is interested in how Old Thom’s presence affects the behavior of sharks in the area. So far, it appears he has had no impact.
“Orcas have had an impact on shark species in other parts of the world, so we want to keep track of him,” Chisholm said.
Killer whales around the world are known to eat seals, sharks, and fish.
“We know he’ll often travel with dolphins, so one theory is he’s mainly a fish eater,” Chisholm said.
White shark spotted in Cape Cod Bay
Seal carcasses with white shark bites have been spotted across the region in recent weeks, but the season’s first visual sighting of a great white shark happened this week in Cape Cod Bay.
The shark was seen in the bay off Barnstable’s Sandy Neck Dunes on Tuesday.
“We’ll start to get more confirmed white shark reports coming in,” Chisholm said, with white sharks returning to the Cape to hunt for seals.
Beachgoers and those out on the water can can report sightings through the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app.
Sharktivity provides information and push notifications on white shark sightings, detections, and movements to raise awareness. As part of a partnership between the New England Aquarium and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, Chisholm serves as citizen science coordinator for the Aquarium, verifying shark sighting reports made by the public and identifying legitimate sightings to be posted on Sharktivity.