r/orcas • u/xcheveryx Eat the rich • 4d ago
Wild Orcas Orcatober - Day 10: Old Tom
Old Tom was one of the Eden killer whales known for assisting whalers in hunting baleen whales.
It is unknown when Old Tom was born, but estimates place it around the 1850s or 1860s.
The Davidson family stated they knew Old Tom for 80 years, and he was present from the 1860s until his death in September 1930.
This would make him over 80 years old.
In 1977, he was estimated to have been 35 years old. This was done using a cross-section of the teeth. However, this method is unreliable for older individuals.
It's unknown how old Old Tom was, but if the Davidson family is correct, Old Tom would be the oldest male killer whale we know of.
Old Tom measured 6.7 m (22 ft), with a 1.02 m (3'4 ft) skull and 13.4 cm (5.3 in) long teeth. He weighed 6 tons.
By the 1840s, 50 killer whales were spread across 3 main pods. All of these pods cooperated.
In the Eden region, hunters sighted only about 30 animals during these hunts. 26 of these were named.
They returned every winter during the migration seasons of baleen whales, from late May until early September.
Old Tom was part of a sub-pod consisting of seven whales led by Hooky.
The members included:
Hooky, Old Tom, Humpy, Big Ben, Young Ben, Charlie Adgery, and Kinscher.
Big Ben left in the early 1900s. Young Ben followed in 1912. Charlie Adgery and Kinscher left in 1923. Humpy was last seen in the 1920s, and Hooky in 1926.
Old Tom was likely around the longest and stayed until his death.
I mentioned the Davidson family, but who were they?
Alexander Davidson began shore-based whaling in 1875 with his son John. Their whaling station was the longest-running shore-based whaling station in Australia. They relied on rowboats and harpoons rather than newer, more effective equipment, such as hand guns and motorboats.
They did this to protect the orcas from the noise.
Three generations of the Davidson family claimed to have worked with Old Tom.
The Davidsons also employed indigenous Australians.
Way before the Davidsons, the indigenous Australian whalers already worked alongside orcas, referred to as beowas ('brothers'). They saw orcas as working dogs. Playful, helpful, and friendly.
They saw orcas as reincarnated ancestors because the orcas' coloration matched their traditional white-and-black clothing during corroboree ceremonies. During this ceremony, people interacted with the Dreamtime through dances, music, and costumes.
The Davidsons had a very positive relationship with the whales.
They would help each other beyond hunting.
If a man fell overboard during a whaling trip, the orcas would protect them until they could make it back into the boat.
Similarly, if orcas became entangled in fishing lines, the whalers would cut them free.
The whalers also fed Old Tom and other orcas with fish. This later became one of their main food sources, although they did also prey on seals and dolphins.
So, how did they hunt with the orcas?
When preying on baleen whales, the pod would divide into three groups. Each group had a unique and important role.
The exact roles vary by source, but one group stayed in the open ocean to hinder escape and to herd the whales towards the coast.
The second group swam underneath the whale to prevent it from diving deep and attacked it.
The third group attacked it and was stationed ahead of the whale during the herding in case it broke loose.
After the whale was trapped, Old Tom would swim in front of the Davidson whaling station and tail-flop to get the attention of the whalers.
The whalers would then row out and harpoon the baleen whale.
The orcas also knew the differences between the boats of the Davidson family and boats of competitors and herded the baleen whales towards them.
Another interesting thing about the Davidsons and the orcas is the Law of Tongue.
Whalers would anchor whale carcasses to the bottom of the seafloor or in close proximity to the shore. Orcas would feed on the carcasses and eat the tongue, the lips, and the genital regions. The whalers used the untouched blubber and bones.
This law dates back to Indigenous Australian history. They had a similar agreement for generations.
Now, back to Old Tom.
Old Tom had a distinct sense of humor. His name was taken from "tomfoolery", and his early nickname "Tom the Humorist" is mentioned in the Davidson family diaries and oral stories.
He was considered a joker for his humorous and sometimes annoying antics. He was known to jump on the rope fastened to a harpooned whale, hanging onto it with his teeth to be towed around.
He also used to take the cables in his teeth to tow the boats out to the open ocean. He would also
do this to smaller fishing boats. Evidence of this behavior can be seen in the wear patterns on his jaw.
The Davidsons described him as an "athletic and skillful whale hunter".
The whaling in Eden declined after the death of Typee in 1901. He was killed by a local after stranding close to shore. This caused the Indigenous Australian whalers to abandon Davidson's crew. This is also what is believed to have driven the orcas away.
Baleen whales weren't stopped in Eden after 1926, but Old Tom returned on his own.
It's believed his pod may have been killed further north in Jervis Bay by Norwegian whalers.
Old Tom likely returned to familiarity after losing the rest of his pod. Lone orcas are often known to approach people and interact with them.
Old Tom was found deceased on September 17th 1930, in the southern part of Twofold Bay.
While the cause of his death remains unknown, he likely died of starvation or old age.
His teeth had been worn down and even damaged after an encounter with George Davidson and his friend John Logan.
Reportedly, John Logan had a "fight" with Old Tom over the carcass of a whale. This ended with Logan damaging some of Old Tom's teeth. This and the constant tooth wear from playing with the ropes and cables may have contributed to his death.
Since his death, the Killer Whale Museum was established in 1931, showcasing a permanent exhibition of the history of Eden and Old Tom.
The main attraction is Old Tom's preserved skeleton.
A study in 2023 (Isabella Reeves et al.) compared Old Tom's genome and compared his DNA to that of other orcas worldwide. This suggests neither Old Tom nor any of his pod left any confirmed descendants.
However, it is possible some relatives of them were not sampled in the study.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 4d ago
Interestingly, there could have been multiple orcas that were identified as Old Tom. Marine biologist and YouTuber KPassionate made a video investigating this.
As per Best et al.:
However, some doubt remains over the identification of the remains as being those of Old Tom: although identified at the time of death by local people previously familiar with the individual, photographs of its dorsal fin at death do not agree with descriptions or photographs of Old Tom’s dorsal fin (Mitchell and Baker 1980; PBB pers. obs.). As Mitchell and Baker (1980) stated, Old Tom’s skeleton represented an adult, socially mature male that barely attained the length of the smallest sexually mature males in the Northern Hemisphere, yet the animal had a dorsal fin nearly as tall as the maximum for any adult bull.
I would not be that surprised if this was actually the case, especially since reliable photo identification techniques weren't really used back then.
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u/Expensive_Poem9822 4d ago
I really love all of the Orcatober posts! These stories are so interesting, thank you for posting them!