The great white shark and the killer whale are the most formidable predators in the sea. These animals are so dangerous that they would never challenge each other...or so we thought. One morning, off the Californian coast, a boatload of tourists witnessed the ultimate clash of the titans: an unexpected killing challenges the great white shark's supremacy as the ultimate predator when one became prey to a killer whale.
The Whale That Ate Jaws examines this extraordinary incident. Featuring amazing underwater footage of two whales feeding on the shark, this show reveals an astonishing new perspective on the relationship between the ocean's two top predators.
Amazing footage of a Killer Whale (Orca) attacking and partially eating a Great White shark, filmed by a whale watching tourist. During a whale watching trip for tourists near the marine sanctuary of the Farallon Islands, a Killer Whale was spotted and filmed as it broke the surface with a Great White shark gripped in its jaws. This was not only the first filming of such an incident, but also the first time marine biologists had even heard of such an attack. This incident lead to further research on the subject, finally convincing marine biologists that the Killer Whale was the top predator in all the oceans.
Killer whales are very sophisticated and effective predators. Thirty-two cetacean species have been recorded as killer whale prey, from examining either stomach contents, scarring on the prey's body, or feeding activity. Groups even attack larger cetaceans such as minke whales, gray whales, and rarely sperm whales or blue whales.
Hunting large whales usually takes several hours. Killer whales generally choose to attack young or weak animals, instead. However, a group of five or more may attack a healthy adult. When hunting a young whale, a group chases it and its mother until they wear out. Eventually, they separate the pair and surround the calf, preventing it from surfacing to breathe, drowning it. Pods of female sperm whales sometimes protect themselves by forming a protective circle around their calves with their flukes facing outwards, using them to repel the attackers. Rarely, large killer whale pods can overwhelm even adult female sperm whales. Adult bull sperm whales, which are large, powerful and aggressive when threatened, and fully grown adult blue whales, which are possibly too large to overwhelm, are not believed to be prey for killer whales.
Other marine mammal prey species include nearly 20 species of seal, sea lion and fur seal. Walruses and sea otters are less frequently taken. Often, to avoid injury, killer whales disable their prey before killing and eating it. This may involve throwing it in the air, slapping it with their tails, ramming it, or breaching and landing on it. Sea lions are killed by head-butting or after a stunning blow from a tail fluke. In the Aleutian Islands, a decline in sea otter populations in the 1990s was controversially attributed by some scientists to killer whale predation, although with no direct evidence. The decline of sea otters followed a decline in harbour seal and Steller sea lion populations, the killer whale's preferred prey,[Note 1] which in turn may be substitutes for their original prey, now decimated by industrial whaling.
