Old Tom
Encyclopedia
Orca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
by whalers
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
in the port of Eden
Eden, New South Wales
Eden is a coastal town in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The town, south of the state capital Sydney near the border with Victoria, is located between Nullica Bay to the south and Calle Calle Bay, the northern reach of Twofold Bay, and built on undulating land adjacent to a...
on the southeast coast of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Old Tom measured 22 feet and weighed 6 tons. The skull measured 1.02 m and the teeth measured about 5.31 inches. Old Tom was thought to be the leader of a pod of killer whales who helped the whalers by herding baleen whale
Baleen whale
The Baleen whales, also called whalebone whales or great whales, form the Mysticeti, one of two suborders of the Cetacea . Baleen whales are characterized by having baleen plates for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth. This distinguishes them from the other suborder of cetaceans,...
s into Twofold Bay
Twofold Bay
Twofold Bay is a bay on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Victoria. The bay has an area of about 30 square kilometres. Close to North Head is a conspicuous islet, Mewstone Rock. About five km south of the islet is Red Point which forms the southern headland of...
. The killer whales would help kill the whales; in return, the whalers allowed the killer whales to eat the tongues and the lips of the baleen whales, an agreement known as the Law of the Tongue.
On 17 September 1930, Old Tom was found dead in Twofold Bay. Before his death Old Tom had been thought to be over 80 years old, but on examination of the remains this estimate was reduced to about 35 years.
Old Tom's bones were preserved and his skeleton is now on display in the Eden Killer Whale Museum
Eden Killer Whale Museum
The Eden Killer Whale Museum is a museum in Eden, New South Wales, Australia. It was originally built to house the skeleton of the orca "Old Tom" and tell its story...
.