Orca's revenge on Jaws sharks

Spectacular drone footage from earlier this year showed a great white shark being hunted and killed by a pod of killer whales.

Now a paper has been written and published in the journal Ecology about that activity, which was the first time it had been captured on film, which suggests the hunting method is being learnt by other orcas.

Authors think the footage suggests this way of killing great white sharks is spreading among orcas, with earlier studies finding that killer whales spread new behaviours over time through being learnt and skills passed on through what is referred to as cultural transmission.

The footage was shot as part of a special for Shark Week, which gives a birds eye view of the moment an orca bites a 9 foot long great white around its liver, causing a pool of blood to emanate from the apex predator before it slowly disappears from view in waters off South Africa’s Mossel Bay.

Simon Elwen, a marine mammal specialist and study co-author, said: “Killer whales are highly intelligent and social animals. Their group hunting methods make them incredibly effective predators.”

Sharks vanished from the area following the attack, authors of the report saying this shows a flight response from the great whites, which if more orcas are learning such attack skills could lead to wider implications not just great whites, but also unbalance local ecosystems and impact shark tourism.

Only one great white thought it was safe to go back in those waters in the following 45 days. You can read the full report in Ecology here: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.3875

Although this footage was the first time it had been captured, bodies of dead great whites have long been washing up on beaches minus their livers and hearts.

It is no coincidence that the name of Quint the shark hunter's iconic boat in the Peter Benchley book and Steven Spielberg film of Jaws is called Orca.

And Jaws 2 (1978) saw a dead killer whale wash up with what Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) thinks are shark bites, which was Jaws' revenge on the previous year’s Orca (1977) - essentially Jaws with a killer whale - which took out a great white in its opening scenes.

Words by Dean Newman.

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