First of all, my apologies for the lapse in posting and I hope this one makes up for lost time! If you recall, in my last post, that we never know what we are going to see in the Bay of Fundy on any given day, or whale watch cruise for that matter. No visitor has captured our hearts as much as the Orca, who first made his appearance to us in 2008. He is not a known whale to researchers, but has since been dubbed "Old Thom" by the many who have seen him or heard of him. We're not sure how this came about but it may be from someone making the statement that he keeps returning to the Bay of Fundy like an old tom cat, hence the name.
That, however, was not the first sighting of him. Our colleagues at the Center for Coastal Studies documented him in 2005 while they were on their annual Northern Gulf of Maine survey cruise. Our first impression of him was that he was not very big and from later research, we found out that he was a juvenile at the time. We also wondered, why is he alone? That answer didn't come until much later. To make a long story short, it turns out that males have a very strong bond with their mothers and if the mother dies, the young male loses any connection with their pod and are on their own. So essentially, Old Tom is an orphan. Don't despair though! He seems to be quite the social butterfly. Each time that we have sighted him, he was accompanied by a large pod of dolphins and we are puzzled as to whether he is in company of them or sees them as a potential meal. Our zodiac Captain once witnessed Old Thom feasting on an unsuspecting harbor porpoise.
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| Tail Lobbing next to the boat |
Through the years, he returned occasionally to the Bay of Fundy and is now a full grown adult. Old Tom is also no stranger to the fishing industry. Each winter, we get reports of lobster fishermen seeing him while out pulling their traps so he seems to be remaining in the area of south west Nova Scotia. Why? I wish I knew! But hey, who am I to tell him that he's not welcome? He can come visit me anytime!
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Shelley, thanks to you and others who have shared information, Old Thom is a "known" Orca now. Maybe one day we will see him among some of the Saint-Pierre groups, although they may not welcome his presence.
ReplyDeleteGood information thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDoes he show up at certain times of year? Did you see Farley Mowatt's comment about another "old tom" from whaling days?
ReplyDeleteYou make is so very interesting, Shelley...awaiting your next posting...
ReplyDelete