Almost 20 sharks slain in a single day by Orca predator duo Port and Starboard

Just when sharks thought it was safe to go swimming in the water, a pair of Orcas have decimated 17 sevengill sharks in one day off the shores of South Africa.

For sharks those 24 hours must have been like three weeks, but these killer whales, are doing exactly what they say on the tin, and in the case of two named Port and Starboard (“Hooper ya idiot. Starboard. Ain’t you watchin' it?”) it is becoming their modus operandi.

The apex predators are so named because of the way their dorsal fins lean, and continue to strike fear and leave a trail of shark death in their wake. Their chosen method, extraction of shark livers.

“At least 17 sevengill sharks have been killed by infamous killer whale pair Port & Starboard this week in South Africa,” marine biologist Alison Kock wrote on Twitter. “Only the livers were eaten, with the leftover carcasses washing ashore.”

It's happened before, as Port and Starboard gained attention for their attack actions during 2019 and 2020, when they were responsible for the carcases of several great white sharks that had washed up on the shores of South Africa, all minus their nutrition-rich livers, and again last year.

It's no surprise then that JAWS author Peter Benchley had Quint name his shark-hunting boat Orca named after the one natural predator which hunts the great white shark.

That killer whale and great white rivalry would spill over into the Orca (1977) where the titular killer whale takes out a great white in the opening scene, with the battle of the apex predators escalating further in JAWS 2, where a dead killer whale washes up on the beach.

And, if it ever gets made, we’ve been teased with the fish against mammal extravaganza which is Alphas, with Avatar’s Sam Worthington.

Back to reality, and the great white community was swimming scared, quite literally, as they vacated the area, which was once teaming with great whites. 

This infamous pair aren’t the Ronnie and Reggie Kray of killer whales, this is what killer whales do, but wherever this pair surface they never fail to capture attention and our fascination.

After all, there are – at least for now – plenty more fish in the sea.

Words by Dean Newman

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