In the movies Shark Tale and Jaws, we learn that the great white shark is at the top of the ocean food chain. They’re the apex predator of the sea that strike fear into anything that swims. Or so we were told.
Turns out a killer whale can eat a great white shark for lunch, literally. According to a new study by the African Journal of Marine Science, a pair of killer whales, named Port and Starboard, have been terrorizing great white sharks off South Africa’s coast since 2017, causing them to flee en masse. The pair has been killing great whites just to eat their livers. And they don’t need any fava beans or a nice bottle of Chianti to enjoy it!
A team of researchers from Marine Dynamics and the Dyer Island Conservation Trust noticed that over the past five and a half years, 14 sharks had been tracked fleeing the area in which the two killer whales are present.
Visual sightings of the great white sharks have also decreased, which is bad for the area because shark seeing is a popular tourist attraction. It’s also had a pronounced impacts on the ecosystem.
Great white sharks had started washing ashore. Between 2017 and 2020, eight great white sharks washed ashore, with their livers ripped out. According to the study, the wounds are distinctively made by the same pair of killer whales. The study also conclude that the orcas are likely to have killed more sharks that are yet to wash up ashore.
The savage attacks have triggered the flight instinct in the sharks, causing a mass migration away from the killer pair. Normally, killer whale don’t hunt sharks, but this pair seems to have developed a taste for shark liver! It’s a good thing orcas don’t like the taste of humans.