Whale, whale, whale.
Four killer whales were spotted swimming together off the coast of Nantucket Sunday — an “unusual” sighting for Massachusetts waters that shocked local scientists.
The pod was spied by New England Aquarium researchers conducting an aerial survey 40 miles south of the tiny island.
The team was logging other marine life known to flourish in the waters — including a pod of dolphins and mother-child humpback whale duo — near the popular summer vacation spot when they noticed the mammals breaching during their seven-hour flight.
“Initially I could just see two splashes ahead of the plane,” Katherine McKenna, assistant research scientist, who first spotted the whales, said in a statement.
“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.”
The pod consisted of one adult male, one adult female and two juveniles, the scientists were able to confirm.
The scientists were stunned to see the orcas, whose species’ population is very small in western North Atlantic waters.
The only killer whale seen regularly in the area is “Old Thom,” a large male orca who is known to swim alone, sometimes alongside dolphins, in the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy, the team said.
The massive whale was also spotted Sunday off about 50 miles north of Nantucket in Provincetown swimming alongside a pod of dolphins, which the aquarium said he is known to do.
Excluding Old Thom, it is “always unusual to see killer whales in New England waters,” according to Orla O’Brien, an associate research scientist who leads the aerial survey team for the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.
“Seeing them swim in formation was just unreal,” said O’Brien. “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.”
Orcas have been making headlines in recent weeks for teaching their young to attack and sink boats in Europe.
There have been dozens of orca attacks in the Strait of Gilbralter since 2020, in which the beasts ram boats, targeting their rudders and often causing serious damage.
Though scientists are unsure why the intelligent creatures are targeting boats, some theorize they are seeking revenge for a matriarch who may have once suffered a traumatic experience that turned her more aggressive.