A rare glimpse of killer whales here

An Eastern Passage fishing charter captain got a real thrill when he spotted two killer whales about 20 kilometres off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Art Gaetan of Blue Shark Fishing Charters snapped photos of the pair on Thursday.

He and about nine customers were amazed at what they saw, Mr. Gaetan said, adding that he hasn’t seen killer whales out there in 28 years.

"We tracked them for about 45 minutes to an hour," he said. "It was pretty cool."

The orcas were swimming near two fin whales, Mr. Gaetan said.

Mr. Gaetan said he and his clients, from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, were all excited to see four whales so close up.

"The reaction was pretty wild," Mr. Gaetan said. "But it was kind of hard, because I was trying to drive the boat and take pictures at the same time."

Lindy Weilgart, a whale researcher associated with Dalhousie University, said it’s unusual to see killer whales that close to shore.

"I would put it at uncommon but not unheard of," said Ms. Weilgart, noting orcas are more commonly found on the Scotian Shelf.

It’s also unusual to see just two killer whales, she said. "They would generally be in groups."

There are resident, transient and offshore killer whales, said the marine biologist.

"They certainly wouldn’t be resident like the inshore ones off the northwest coast of the U.S., but they could either be offshore or they could be transients," Ms. Weilgart said. "Neither of those is particularly well studied. They would probably range quite widely."

The whales might be attracted to large concentrations of seals on Sable Island, she said.

"These guys are just very unpredictable and unknown."

The killer whales would typically be hunting other marine mammals, she said.

"They would probably be in search of food, be it seal or herring," said Andrew Newbould, a marine mammal adviser with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

After examining a photo of the whales seen Thursday off Halifax, Mr. Newbould said the one with the straight dorsal fin is male and the female has the smaller, curved dorsal fin.

"While not a common occurrence, sightings of killer whales off Nova Scotia are generally reported every few years," he said. "The species distribution spans the globe, including the majority of the North Atlantic Ocean, so it’s hard to say where they’re coming from or where they’re going."