Killer whales reported in Bay of Fundy

Gordon Wilson, deputy clerk with the Municipality of Digby, was watching a large group of dolphins heading up the bay last night past his waterfront home at Culloden when a large black fin emerged from the water.

“All of a sudden there was a big black fin. I said that looks like a killer whale and sure enough he came up again.”

Wilson grabbed for his binoculars but the next sighting showed the whales about 300 to 400 yards offshore.

He notified marine animal researchers in Halifax and found there were sightings earlier this year of killer whales off the Eastern Shore and the crew of an East Pubnico boat fishing for halibut on the Scotian Shelf in March reported a solitary whale eating halibut off their fishing lines.

Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, told Carla Allen of the Yarmouth Vanguard, that the predatory mammals eat fish, marine birds and a large array of marine mammals, from seals and sea lions to dolphins and whales.

“We hear of the occasional sighting, but haven't heard of any in the last couple of years. There have been sporadic reports throughout the North Atlantic including northern Europe,” said Hebda.

The museum has a tooth from an orca stranded on Sable Island in 1972, and a report of another stranded in the Minas Basin in 1950.

Wilson also notified a Digby-based whale-watching firm that raced out to the Bay, but was unable to find the killer whales.