Orca attacking whale sharks

[fab208]

I just wondered whether anyone has seen this from Baja California -- it comes after reports of Orca attacking white sharks off the coast of Mexico & in South Africa. They seem to be specifically attacking for the livers as they don't eat anything else. I hadn't heard of them doing it to whalesharks until now, but this happened twice in one day according to this report... Is this normal behaviour from Orca? Or could it be a result of changing ocean temperatures, currents & fish supplies that mean that they are resorting to this kind of behaviour? Thoughts?

 

[CuzzA]

Why would they treat a whale shark any different than a humpback, dolphin or great white?

They literally have "killer" in their name. There should be no surprise they do this. What you're probably shocked by is that with so many people on earth and even more cameras, you got to see it happen.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

There is a lack of fish/nutrition in the Puget Sound for orcas, so I am not surprised to see them hunting prey they did not hunt in the past. We need to remember that orcas are incredibly smart.

 

[CuzzA]

There is a lack of fish/nutrition in the Puget Sound for orcas, so I am not surprised to see them hunting prey they did not hunt in the past. We need to remember that orcas are incredibly smart.

This wasn't off Puget sound according to the post. Baja, California is where it occurred. Pods of Orcas live in every major body of water at every latitude.

 

[Eric802]

I'm glad that guy was so excited to see the whale shark, since he's probably the last person to see it.

 

[living4experiences]

This is a new, learned behavior by orcas, and no one knows for sure why they are hunting in this way. There are two orcas in South Africa named Port and Starboard that have killed a lot of great whites by just taking the liver, and now, the white shark cage diving industry is gone. They were first sighted in 2015 or 2016. We are killing our oceans with overpopulation, overfishing, illegal fishing and shark finning, and one theory is that the orcas are adjusting to a lack of food by hunting differently to adapt to the human destruction of their habitat.

 

[Knockneed Man]

uggg. Time to kill all the orcas

 

[kimh]

…one theory is that the orcas are adjusting to a lack of food by hunting differently to adapt to the human destruction of their habitat.

Another theory is that orcas are intelligent.

"This preference for a particular organ is not odd for orcas, according to marine biologists. They’re known around the world for going after the choicest cuts from their prey…"

"…Terrestrial predators also sometimes show preferences for certain body parts. Wolves, for example, go after the guts of deer and other large prey. Brown and black bears focus on the oily brains and nutritious roe of salmon when the fish are abundant and deign to chow down on whole fish only in years when salmon aren’t plentiful"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-killer-whales-rip-out-shark-livers

 

[fab208]

Do you think human divers are at risk if they dive in these areas? Or am I being overly paranoid?!

 

[admikar]

In any case, make sure to record whatever happens.