It’s been pretty well documented that orcas can be pretty terrifying. Not to humans — unless we’re training them at a place like Seaworld — but if you happen to be a shark with a delicious liver… well, watch out. And a video shot by James Moskito, CEO of Ocean Safaris, shows exactly why.
The video captures some insane footage of an orca targeting a whale shark and taking its pick of the choicest cuts. It’s hard to watch, but nature’s going to nature, you know?
Orcas have been documented doing this before on great whites, but as the video shows, they’re not all that picky about where they get their livers from. But with great whites, orcas have displayed some pretty incredible behavior. See, sharks do this thing called tonic immobility. If they get flipped upside down, they go into a strange, trance-like state. Orcas will flip them over, then get started on the organ removal. Wild, right?
It appears that the footage Moskito shot might be the first of its kind. Whale sharks are huge and don’t have many predators due to their size, but orcas aren’t known as killer whales for nothing.
“They came in, they bit the bottom of the whale shark,” Moskito told LiveScience. “Looks like they slurped in the liver and then the whale shark just fell and descended down, with no movement – I’m assuming it was dead.”
Moskito saw the whole thing happen during an expedition to the Gulf of California back in April. After spotting the whale shark, he swam over for a closer look. That’s when the killer whales moved in. While it might be hard to watch, it’s a prime example of just how merciless Mother Nature can be.
