“This is the biggest predation event on the planet. We haven't seen things like this since dinosaurs were here, and probably not even then.”
The new paper describes two other successful attacks, carried out by many of the same orcas, that killed a blue whale calf in 2019 and a juvenile in 2021. All three events happened along the continental shelf drop-off offshore of Bremer Bay, where migrating blue whales pass by a population of over 150 orcas, possibly the largest aggregation of orcas in the world.
Caught on tape for the first time, a dozen orcas relentlessly attack a blue whale as it attempts to flee. The orcas’ tactics — ripping off strips of flesh, ramming the flank, consuming the tongue — are consistent with observed attacks on other large whales. Despite their brutality, orca hunts are family affairs. Female orcas often lead the charge, with calves watching closely and sometimes participating “like excited little puppies,” says Pitman. The hunters will even share the spoils with their extended family; Totterdell observed about 50 orcas picnicking on the blue whale in the hours after its death.
It’s uncertain if large whales played a significant role in orca diets before whaling removed nearly 3 million whales from the oceans, including as many as 90 percent of blues whales — but it’s definitely possible, says Pete Gill, a whale ecologist at Blue Whale Study in Narrawong, Australia. Orcas and blue whales have been interacting for tens of thousands of years, he says. “I imagine they have had this dynamic for quite a long time.
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