CANSO - Kayla Partridge was on a small boat with family and friends Sunday when they were suddenly part of an exceptionally rare encounter with a lone killer whale off southern Cape Breton.

“We were just kind of putting along and then we saw him breach,” Partridge said in an interview Monday, recalling how the orca leapt from the water on the western side of the Canso Causeway, which links the island with mainland Nova Scotia.