In a rare sighting, four killer whales were spotted swimming together off the coast of Massachusetts on Sunday, New York Post reported. The unique sight was captured by scientists at the New England Aquarium as the research team flew aerial surveys 40 miles south of the tiny island on June 13.
The picture was shared on the Aquarium's Twitter account and captioned as, ''A unique sight from the sky: FOUR #KillerWhales swimming together! Last Sunday, Aquarium scientists spotted four #orcas on an #AerialSurvey 40 miles south of Nantucket. According to our scientists, it is unusual to see killer whales in New England waters, let alone four!''
See the picture here:
The pod of killer whales, also known as orcas, was first spotted by Katherine McKenna, an assistant research scientist.
"Initially I could just see two splashes ahead of the plane. As we circled the area, two whales surfaced too quickly to tell what they were. On the third surfacing, we got a nice look and could see the tell-tale coloration before the large dorsal fins broke the surface,'' Ms. McKenna said in a statement.
The pod consisted of one adult male, one adult female, and two juveniles, the scientists confirmed. According to to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, killer whales are the ocean's top predator.
Reacting to the picture, one user said, ''Wow. We don't see orcas along the east coast very often in the summer months.'' Another commented, ''I love seeing the cool data coming out of increased marine mammal survey efforts!''
A third wrote, ''Take me to the sea please, I want to see these.''
Orla O'Brien, an associate research scientist who leads the aerial survey team for the Aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, said, ''Seeing them swim in formation was just unreal.''
''I think seeing killer whales is particularly special for us because it unlocks that childhood part of you that wanted to be a marine biologist,'' he said, adding the species' population is very small in western North Atlantic waters. There is only one known killer whale seen regularly in North Atlantic waters known as "Old Thom.''
The team also spotted nearly 150 whales and dolphins during its seven-hour flight over the ocean.
