Elusive orca called Chainsaw spotted near Washington islands. How did he get his name?

A popular orca named Chainsaw made a rare appearance off of Washington’s coast this week, exciting naturalists and researchers.

Whale watchers got a first hand look at the Bigg’s killer whale and his pod Monday near the San Juan Islands, according to a Facebook post from Pacific Whale Watch Association.

“Chainsaw is in the house!” Jeff Friedman, owner of the Friday Harbor-based whale watching company Maya’s Legacy, said as he and his passengers watched 10 Bigg’s killer whales swim through the Haro Strait.

Chainsaw, or T063, is easy to pick out in a crowd of orcas due to his namesake dorsal fin, according to the post.

“Chainsaw’s dorsal fin has several large notches in the top third of his fin that gives the appearance of a large saw blade,” the post says.

When Chainsaw was young he lost two large chunks of his dorsal fin, likely when a seal or sea lion bit him, according to the post. Seals and sea lions are the preferred prey of Bigg’s killer whales, the post says, unlike the endangered Southern Resident killer whales, who prefer Chinook salmon.

Chainsaw was born in 1978 and travels with his mother, Whidbey II, regularly, researchers say, according to the post.

Naturalists believe that spring is usually when Chainsaw makes his visit while also traveling up the coast of Canada to as far as Southeast Alaska, where he’s known as “Zorro.”

“It was a beautiful day on the water to watch whales,” Sara McCullagh, captain of the Sea Lion, a coast guard certified whale watch vessel, said in the post. “It’s always fun to see Chainsaw. He’s a bucket-list animal for a lot of us in the whale watching community.”

Nearly 400 Bigg’s killer whales have been reported in the region at one point or another, according to the post. They are “increasing in number due to the abundance of prey,” the post says.

This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Elusive orca called Chainsaw spotted near Washington islands. How did he get his name?."