Orcas make more targeted attacks on Great White Sharks
Two years ago Swellnet reported on a top-of the-food-chain fight that went down at the Neptune Islands off South Australia. In front of a bunch of cage diving tourists "six orca whales herded a Great White Shark and began to attack it by launching out of the water and slamming down on it."
The result from that lopsided assault was an exodus of Great White Sharks from the Neptune Island area and the subsequent collapse of the cage diving industry.
Showing it wasn't a one-off event, similar attacks recently occurred in South Africa. And in a grisly twist the Orcas have been targetting the White's organs; several carcasses have been found without livers and two with their hearts also missing, while the stomach and testes had been removed in the most recently found carcass.
The autopsy on that shark was done by the Dyer Island Conservation Trust team who updated their findings in a Facebook post:
The deceased male shark measured 4.1m in total length. He was missing his liver, his testes and stomach. The carcass may be a few days old but it seems relatively fresh and bled out massively. All necessary samples have been taken for the various scientific projects.
"This is the 4th documented deceased white shark since May that we can connect to Orca predation" said Towner [Alison Towner, White Shark biologist]
The pair of Orcas believed to be responsible were sighted offshore of Danger Point then again in Franskraal today. Marine Dynamics cage diving boat tracked the pair. Subsequently all cage diving boats failed to see white sharks today and it is believed the sharks may have fled the area once again.
In a field where knowledge is scant and attacks unpredictable, there appears a recurring pattern with Orcas and White Sharks.
Also makes you wonder who the actual apex predator is - underneath humans, that is.
Comments
>Also makes you wonder who the actual apex predator is - underneath humans, that is.
Nothing at all to wonder about there. Orcas. If we could contract this pair to come and hang off the NSW coast it would be a win for everyone.
Well that depends on if your swimming in the ocean or if your in a boat in the ocean!
The odds change dramatically one way or the other.
Team Orca would be handy down South Aus as well
Oh yeh around posties at the moment
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/06/18/in-a-bering-sea-battle-of-kil...
Why don't orcas go for humans more often? More intelligent than whites?
Has an Orca ever attacked a human ?
Beyond sorting out the fuckwits that dare treat them like servile domestic pets at aquatic prisons - oops , sorry - marine theme parks.
Yeah that's the only times I can recall
At least the Orcas are thinking about limiting future white numbers by neutering the fuckers!
And Occasionally eating them!
SAVE THE GIANT SQUID.
I 'guess' Orcas don't attack humans because our "organs" aren't big enough , and can probably detect the size of our liver through their sonar capabilities , so alcoholics beware. But they do eat smaller prey too so I,m clueless as to why they don't knock off a bit of neoprene wrapped takeaway occasionally . As for employing them as bouncers , I think the next best thing would be to record their underwater signals while they're attacking the sharks , and instead of 'shark listening stations' we could play their tune on underwater PA systems , with a 'bad boys' remix of course.,
Fellow Swellnetonians may be surprised that Wikipedia supplies exhaustive incident list.
More surprising that a boardrider has been... (No spoiler alert)
Plenty of tank deaths also. Clever ice games and crush injuries.
I don't mean to sound morbid but it's well worth a read.
Yes if you had a white in a tank it would probably just take a bite!
Where a orca probably just gets Bord and frustrated at not being able to open up and swim!
And just drown it's trainer.
Quick scan of the literature (not much understandably) suggests that there might be three ecological niches that these guys occupy and specialize in: resident, transient and offshore. It appears that they are genetically distinct and do not overlap (i.e. they don't interbreed and may not eat each others preferred prey type (great way to reduce within-species competition which is bad)). Apparently resident and transient eat teleost fish (i.e. salmon etc.) and marine mammals respectively, but offshore relatively unknown (probably why these guys are so excited). Despite this, two events have been documented where two pods (n = 5, and n = ~100) of offshores were preying on Pacific sleeper sharks (Somniosus pacificus). This particular paper was published in 2011 so if anyone has anything more current would love to hear.
I thought it was well known once a orca attacks a white pointer the area is cleared
for months on end. I know I mentioned this on here somewhere a year or to ago.
Dosent everybody know about the story of orcas help fisherman down the south coast
herd up fish and the fisherman would them feed them. Until the typical humans decidered
to shoot them. Humans are the worst preditors on earth ever.
Evo, I thought the story went somewhere along the lines of a single big old male used to help herd whales into (may have even been Jervis Bay) to make it easier for the whalers to pick them off. In return, he was rewarded with the tongue(s) of the whales as he was quite partial to them (Orca delicacy apparently).
One day, one of the whalers witheld that reward and even taunted him with it. That enraged the big Orca and he left never to return. As a result of that, whales became very difficult to catch which led to the demise of whaling in that area.
Anyway, that's the version I heard and happy to stand corrected.
killersofeden.com
Cheers Crustt, I'm totally wrong on all fronts.
Great story all the same.
Maybe im the one who needs to be corrected I didnt read it I was told the story.
But im a firm believer that humans are the no 1 preditors.
Old Tom
I had an interesting encounter recently at a well known S.A beach. In between sets on a very clean day, I saw something large through the face of an oncoming wave, kept watching obviously, then seconds after, a huge black dorsal and large part of the upper back of the creature appeared coming directly towards me at speed, roughly 15-20 meters away further out. My first thought was it was the biggest white ever coming straight at me. I scratched furiously for the next wave, the same one I originally saw the beast in, luckily caught it and gut slid all the way in. I stood on the beach watching but saw nothing more. After calming down a bit and thinking about it I realised what had just happened, it was way too big even for the biggest of whites and jet black, also the way it moved through the water in a porpoising motion. I am 99% sure it was an Orca and its proximty and speed that it was travelling toward me meant that if it wanted to it could have had me with ease. A couple other factors which might have made a difference was my bright blue and orange wetsuit along with the flouro yellow and blue 8ft foamy I was on (I'm a surf coach and had taken a lesson board out for a quick pre-lesson paddle coz the waves were just too nice to watch). All in all Im glad to still be here because I have no doubt that it was intentionally coming towards me and definately could have eaten me if that was its intention.
Oct'2009 Cold case of that chomped Straddie Great White Overbite puts Orca in the frame.
Here during Whale Season home to pods of 15 Orca .
We watched for 1/2 hr a pod of 15 in 'waist deep' gutter at Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast 2005.
....and no we didn't go swimming with them. Mostly as it resembled a giant cereal bowl.
For the record... just recently a friend recalled same day with pod close inshore at The Spit.
Large Orca pods prey 'round whole of 0z'.
Recent footage Autumn 2015 of large Orca pod frolicking with dolphin off N.T.
Anytime any line-up - least when you expect it... Orca gonna nibble yer toes!
Ok! So you're here for the gore! (re: Above) boardrider story cont...(Spoiler alert)
September 9/1972 Californian boardrider Hans Kretschmer surfing Point Sur was bitten by Orca requiring 100 stitches. (Killerbite Klub).
Orcas cleaning up mans obvious mistakes.
True blue, there was a pod of Orcas seen well offshore from Southport just last weekend. Hopefully they head inshore to Ballina for a while.
Suck eggs you shark, you.
Check out on the ABC doco "Blackfish" on Orca's regarding attacks on humans....no recorded attacks on humans in the wild... but there is no way you would want to be a trainer.
See: Drone whips up Orcas into frenzy. (Bloody well almost killed the girl !)
See: Orca happy to just nibble Swimmers toes.(Yummy)
See: Orcas force pipis to shut up shop. (Hey not so close you big Bully)
note: (They get spun out by her/Mermaid's broken(split)Tail).
Oo% Look Mummy o%o The wounded mermaid is having trouble swimming %Oo
% Another quick nibble won't hurt %o Just make sure that Drone isn't watching O%
https://www.9news.com.au/2018/12/13/13/14/drone-footage-captures-womans-...
Just heard from a mate that a baby orca washed up up at Salt a short time ago; it's been taken alive to Seaworld.
Ah turns out it's a false killer whale, which is a species of dolphin.
False News!! Swellnet. tut tut.
hehehe
A faux-lphin
not only do Orcas kill humans in captivity (occasionally) they seem to get away with it (Tilikum), cause catching new ones is frowned upon.
Apparently they leave us alone in the wild, but not sure how many people jump in near freezing waters in an Alaskan sound when they see a dozen 6ft fins poking out of the water
A few dive operators perhaps not rejoicing at Orca attacks
orcas have (much) bigger brains than us. maybe they are smart enough to realise that predating on us just isn't a good long term plan