Great white sharks were spotted. Strangely, it is absentIn recent years, the coast of South Africa has been untouched. With suspicionsFor their declining numbers, they are now being hunted by the orca.
This is footage of an actual hunt.
Two new images, one from the helicopter and one via a drone, capture two of the ocean’s most fierce predators in action for the first time.
“This behavior was never seen in detail, and certainly not from the air,” “Alison Towner, a marine scientist from Rhodes University in South Africa, is featured.
On the afternoon of May 16, a drone drifted into Mossel Bay and saw a white belly swimming in the sea. A handful of killer whales were swimming near the surface, and the drone pilot – a hobbyist on the beach – decided to track them.
As the drone followed and recorded the group, a pair of orcas split eastward towards the local river’s mouth – a known hotspot for shark activity.
Two of the remaining cetaceans started swimming together in the ocean’s surface facing each other, as if they were looking out.
Seven seconds later, the fifth orca emerged from deep below the two patrols. It was pushing a three-meter long white shark belly-side up to the surface with its nose. The orca quickly flipped the shark and sucked blood into the sea.
The shark was still in the jaws of the orca, so the fifth person dived deep, releasing the carcass.
The shark was then pulled into the abyss by one of the orcas that were patrolling the area.
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Later, a member of the orcas group was identified as “Starboard”, a famous maleWith a broken dorsal fin. Starboard was previously implicated in four shark carcasses that were washed up on South Africa’s beaches. They were missing their livers.
Starboard and Port have never been seen in battle with great white sharks, but circumstantial evidence suggests they are the most likely predators of local shark species. These two whales are known to frequent shark hotspots and the large fish will often leave the area for days after they return.
“I first met Starboard in 2015, when he and his close-associated Port were involved in the killing of seven gill sharks at False Bay.” “David Hurwitz, a Simon’s Town Boat Company boat-based whale-watching operator, contributed to the study.
“We saw them kill an emerald whaler.” [copper shark] in 2019 – but this new observation is really something else.”
Orcas hunt white sharks from time to time, but only three studies have ever documented this behavior.
An analysis of drone footage and photographs from a local helicopter is the first to reveal the hunting strategy in any detail.
These helicopter photographs indicate that at least two white sharks were also killed in the same fateful event by orcas close to Mossel Bay.
Two shark attacks were witnessed by the helicopter pilot just prior to the drone footage.
The pilot captured a series images and video clips using their smartphone of the orca predators.
The researchers concluded that the drone footage had captured the same group because of the overlap in area and time. Send an email.
“Two video clips at 14h07 and 14h27 showed two killer whales (Starboard, in the first clip), closely following large white sharks.
This is a way for sharks to keep an eye on orcas. This is similar to the way their prey avoids them. Sharks can be quite dangerous. Sometimes you might team upOrcas hunt like a master, so looking in one direction does not guarantee safety.
The pilot captured photos from his helicopter of an orca consuming a large shark liver. This indicates that the liver of a white shark is buoyant. It could mean that the shark’s stomach may have taken a large bite.
The drone pilot and beach-based observers reported that sharks fled the area just four minutes prior to the feeding event. Some were even as low as two meters from the shore.
Ten sharks were seen from the drone that day. Based on satellite tags, drone surveys and boat sightings, no sharks were found in the area for several weeks.
Starboard, an older male Orca, was caught with another pod of orcas hunting white sharks. It is possible that this behavior may be spreading.
The practice could be adopted by more orcas, which could have a significant impact on the local shark population. These sharks are valued and respected in Mossel Bay.
We have had fewer sightings of sharks near the coast. Some blame illegal hunting and overfishingTheir absence. However, this might not be true.
The study was published in Ecology.
