The great white shark the king of the ocean has been dethroned but in reality we are just
learning that the great white has never been the top predator of the seas.
Known for launching seals out of the water, terrifying cage viewings and their icon fin
the great white shark has been the apex ocean predator for as long as we have been around.
Their menacing size and ferocious bite are no match for other creatures in the water
let alone their prey like the sea lion.
A great white can consume an entire sea lion in a single meal.
Found in many areas around the world like the western and eastern coasts of north and
south america, all around Japan, north africa and the mediterranian they are most prolific
in shark alley off the coast of South Africa.
The great white shark communicates using body language and scents and not sounds like you
might expect.
They can smell a single drop of blood among a million drops of water but that keen sense
of smell and their massive size is no match for a creature that lives in the waters just
5 feet behind me… the killer whale.
Up until 2015 there had only been 2 sightings of killer whales eating great white sharks.
A tourist boat off the coast of San Francisco saw it happen first hand, many years ago,
and in 2015 off South Australia a tourist captured a pod hunting and killing a white
shark.
We have never really known how a killer whale would attack a great white or what the matchup
would be like.
In 2017 and 2018 great whites started washing up on shore in South Africa, the mecca of
great whites.
The sharks were mostly intact except one shared piece missing, the liver.
The culprits responsible were identified as 2 male killer whales named port and starboard.
These fully grown killer whales both are suffering from drooped over dorsal fins which is thought
to be caused by extreme trauma which is usually seen with whales enslaved in captivity such
as at slave world ahem.. sea world.
It’s incredibly rare for wild orcas to have collapsed dorsal fins let alone 2 of them
working together.
Killer whales swim at speeds of 4 mph or 6.5 km/h normally and can sprint up to 34 mph
or 55 km/h.
This speed keeps their dorsal fin, that’s made of collagen upright and firm.
Whales trapped in pools with no where to swim end up with a collapsed dorsal fin but in
the wild such as with port and starboard it is believed they were potentially stuck in
a fishing net or in a region with exceptionally warm temperatures.
The dorsal fin of the orca acts like a radiator so if the water temperature gets too warm
this can potentially break down the collagen in their fin.
We don’t know exactly but it seems killer whales have been selectively choosing to not
attack great white sharks in preference for something else more nutritious.
It seems that the great white shark is and easy meal for the killer whale.
Recent footage that just came out shows our suspicions were correct.
Killer whales like a pack of wolves work together to not only kill the great whites but to extract
an organ.
An orca will swoop in and headbutt a great white shark stunning it for a few seconds,
landing a bite with surgical precision their powerful jaw chomps in just below their pectoral
fin exposing the great white shark’s liver.
While the shark is held another orca will come in and suck out the liver.
This may seem weird at first but we know the liver is used by the great white shark to
control their depth in the ocean.
Without their liver they will simply sink and well perish.
To guarantee a successful hunt orcas will also flip the shark over on their back which
puts most sharks into a state called tonic immobility.
While this affects other sharks to a greater degree great whites have been known to go
into the state of tonic immobility which is a state that renders the shark motionless
or paralzyed when they are flipped over on their back.
All a killer whale has to do at this point is just hold them there until they drown as
great whites need to move at all times to stay alive.
Not all sharks, around 2 dozen of them including the mako shark, are obligate ram ventilators
which require them to continually pass water through their gills in their mouths to keep
breathing.
A killer whale or 2 holding a white shark upside down in a paralzyed state isn’t much
of a fight after all.
Their pattern is to just eat the liver suggesting its the most nutritious source of the shark
for the orcas as the rest of the bodies end up on shore.
New footage on national geographics website shows this although the footage isn’t all
that exciting it’s linked up below if you want to see it.
How do you feel now that you know the killer whale, as their name suggests is the current
champion of the seas?
There have been bigger better champions of the ocean in the past like the megalodon but
that’ll have to wait for another episode.