Silence of the Lambs of the Sea
March 25, 2025 10:37 AM Subscribe
The first great white shark carcass washed ashore in February 2017, in Gansbaai, a town about 35 miles southeast of False Bay. Over the next several months, four more were found, all with tears to their underbelly near their pectoral fins and none with livers.
After years of Jaws and Shark Week, it was with complete befuddlement when I learned how easily the orca preyed upon the great white shark population. This is referenced in the article, but in another study, great white researchers discovered that if a great white even see's a killer whale in its feeding area, it'll just up and nope itself out of there for weeks.
The liver thing isn't that shocking when you consider how vicious our seafaring mammalian friends are at their hunting game. When it comes to seals, they've learned the use the power of waves to catch them when they might otherwise be safe - on an iceberg, on a beach. There was a recent PBS documentary about orca where the scientists caught the first live action video of orca swimming as a group toward an iceberg bound seal and generating a miniature tidal wave with their mass to knock it off into the water, an attack in this instance, that actually took over an hour or two of repeated assaults.
As deadly as orca are, they still have horrible tastes in hats.
posted by Atreides at 10:49 AM on March 25 [6 favorites]
The liver thing isn't that shocking when you consider how vicious our seafaring mammalian friends are at their hunting game. When it comes to seals, they've learned the use the power of waves to catch them when they might otherwise be safe - on an iceberg, on a beach. There was a recent PBS documentary about orca where the scientists caught the first live action video of orca swimming as a group toward an iceberg bound seal and generating a miniature tidal wave with their mass to knock it off into the water, an attack in this instance, that actually took over an hour or two of repeated assaults.
As deadly as orca are, they still have horrible tastes in hats.
posted by Atreides at 10:49 AM on March 25 [6 favorites]
This doesn’t happen to sharks who are octopus steeds.
posted by house-goblin at 12:05 PM on March 25 [10 favorites]
posted by house-goblin at 12:05 PM on March 25 [10 favorites]
Scientific American and Smithsonian links for all us Washington Post haters.
posted by jewel-jerk-dazzle at 12:29 PM on March 25 [6 favorites]
posted by jewel-jerk-dazzle at 12:29 PM on March 25 [6 favorites]
I don't think I really appreciated how powerful orca are until I saw that video of an orca flipping a seal some 80 ft and at least half that high.
posted by jamjam at 12:39 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]
posted by jamjam at 12:39 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]
Nature red in tooth & fin.
posted by y2karl at 1:13 PM on March 25 [7 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 1:13 PM on March 25 [7 favorites]
I have been Team Great White for decades - always been fascinated by them. But...ORCAS, man. Truly apex. And I kinda have to cheer for Team Mammal over Team Fish, right?
From one of the linked articles: "In 1997, during the first interaction ever recorded, fishermen near Southeast Farallon witnessed a pair of orcas kill a young great white that tried to nose in on the sea lion they were eating. The orcas bashed him to death then ate his liver."
BASHED HIM TO DEATH THEN ATE HIS LIVER.
posted by davidmsc at 1:38 PM on March 25 [8 favorites]
From one of the linked articles: "In 1997, during the first interaction ever recorded, fishermen near Southeast Farallon witnessed a pair of orcas kill a young great white that tried to nose in on the sea lion they were eating. The orcas bashed him to death then ate his liver."
BASHED HIM TO DEATH THEN ATE HIS LIVER.
posted by davidmsc at 1:38 PM on March 25 [8 favorites]
(Dan Ackroyd high voice) Save the liver!
posted by Melismata at 1:54 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 1:54 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]
Is this accompanied by fava beans?
posted by jim in austin at 5:37 PM on March 25
posted by jim in austin at 5:37 PM on March 25
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posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:48 AM on March 25