{"id":80458,"date":"2025-08-13T20:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/80458\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T20:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:26:09","slug":"well-known-orca-old-thom-spotted-again-in-mass-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/80458\/","title":{"rendered":"Well-known orca &#8216;Old Thom&#8217; spotted again in Mass. waters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"a-term a-term--primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/tag\/local-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLocal News\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tUnlike most other orcas, the massive male known as &#8220;Old Thom&#8221; prefers to swim alone.<\/p>\n<p>Video courtesy Donna Piraino.<\/p>\n<p>Although orcas, or killer whales, are found in every ocean around the world, only one is known to frequent the waters off Massachusetts. That animal, a solitary male known as \u201cOld Thom\u201d reappeared north of Cape Cod Sunday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Donna Piraino, who helps run Go Girl Fish Fishing Charters, saw \u201cOld Thom\u201d firsthand as she was looking for tuna near Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Piraino was drawn to the sight of a pod of dolphins when one much larger dorsal fin appeared above the waves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Piraino captured the moment on video and posted it to Facebook. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy reposted her video and confirmed that the orca was indeed \u201cOld Thom.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Video courtesy Donna Piraino.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld Thom\u201d has been spotted in waters around Cape Cod numerous times before, including in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local-news\/2016\/07\/05\/tourists-treated-orca-sighting-chatham\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2016<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local-news\/2022\/05\/16\/orca-spotted-off-cape-cod\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2022<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local-news\/2023\/06\/13\/multiple-killer-whales-spotted-near-the-cape\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2023<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local-news\/2024\/06\/03\/rare-sighting-orca-spotted-off-cape-cod\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2024<\/a>. He first got onto the radar of researchers with the New England Aquarium in 2015, when they found him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KpSv6vThT5U\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">swimming in the Bay of Fundy<\/a> between Maine and New Brunswick.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld Thom\u201d has a massive dorsal fin with a distinct in-cut and is believed to be more than 25-feet long. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/species\/killer-whale\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orcas are highly social animals<\/a>, and usually live in pods. But \u201cOld Thom\u201d is an anomaly, usually found swimming alone or beside dolphins. Orcas are actually dolphins themselves, the largest members of the Delphinidae family.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/author\/ross.cristantiello\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ross Cristantiello<\/a>Staff Writer\t<\/p>\n<p>Ross Cristantiello, a general assignment news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment, and more.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the Today newsletter<\/p>\n<p class=\"m-generic-cta__subtitle\">Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local News Unlike most other orcas, the massive male known as &#8220;Old Thom&#8221; prefers to swim alone. Video&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-80458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}