Killer Whales Spotted in New England for the First Time in Years. What Does It Mean for the Ocean?

Two marine scientists recently spotted four killer whales off the coast of New England, the first time the animals had been sighted in the area in years, the New York Times reported on June 15. "It's the type of thing that jolts you," said one of the scientists, who was taking photos of water-bound mammals by plane. Read on to find out why.

Orla O'Brien and Katherine McKenna, two research scientists from the New England Aquarium, were taking photos by air of the waters south of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard on June 11 when they saw some splashing that turned out to be a group of killer whales.

This came as a shock to the pair, who were used to seeing humpback whales, North Atlantic right whales, and minke whales—but not orcas, or killer whales, which are rarely seen on the East Coast.

"This kind of sighting generates a lot of attention because killer whales are very charismatic, striking and beautiful," O'Brien told the New York Times. "It's fun to share this with people, but it's not necessarily something we see all the time or something I expect to see going forward — just a really lucky day."

As it turns out, it wasn't the only killer whale sighting in the area that day.

Chris Simon was aboard a fishing boat in the waters off Provincetown, Massachusetts, when he saw a fin much larger than he was used to seeing. "As we got closer, I was like, 'Oh my god, this is once-in-a-lifetime experience that many people will never get to see,'" Simon told the Times. "We were just in awe."

Simon posted a video of the whale on Instagram. One commenter said it was a "dream" to see an orca up close. Others claimed the whale was Old Thom, an orca who is known to travel alone and is occasionally spotted in the Cape Cod area, the Times reported.

Killer whales are rarely spotted in the Atlantic Ocean because their population there has traditionally been small, experts say. These new sightings could be due to rebounding numbers of seals and sharks along the Eastern seaboard, said Andrew Trites, the director of the marine mammal research unit at the University of British Columbia.

Killer whales feed on both marine mammals. "Almost everything is connected to food," Trites told the Times.

Killer whales have attracted headlines from different geographical areas recently. In recent months, there have been multiple reports of killer whales attacking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar and piercing their rudders.  Scientists think one traumatized orca may have started the trend after colliding with a vessel or becoming entangled in a net.

Orcas are highly social creatures that can easily learn and copy behaviors they observe. "They are incredibly curious and playful animals and so this might be more of a play thing as opposed to an aggressive thing," Deborah Giles, an orca researcher at the University of Washington and at the non-profit Wild Orca, told Live Science.