I had a bad experience with a killer whale when I was returning to San Diego from Catalina Island in my rather small Columbia 22 sailboat (this was around 1977).<p>A killer whale jumped out of the water to the level of the top of my mast 4 times. Each time it landed horizontally right next to my boat, almost tipping the boat over with the splash/wave it created. I laid down in the bottom of the cockpit reaching up to steer my boat and I told my girlfriend to go below decks and lay on the floor to keep our weight as low in the boat as possible. At the top of the 4 jumps out of the water, I saw a black beady little eye staring down at me.<p>I was very relieved when it left the area.<p>EDIT: I bought a bigger sailboat
>> “Lions, for example, do not eat a lot of impala, but impala fear lions more than any other predator on the landscape except humans,”<p>Probably explains why lions don't eat many impala.
Orcas are one of the most amazing animals in my opinion. They are extremely intelligent and family oriented. There are some great video captures of Orcas attacking great white sharks by flipping the shark upside down which puts the shark into paralysis and then they simply kill the shark without any resistance. The whole encounter doesn't last more than a few seconds this is how precise and smart these animals are.<p>Many people are probably familiar with some documentaries where we can see Orcas hunt in groups to create artificial waves in order to wipe seals off the ice plates in the Arctic.<p>I personally was lucky to see Orcas patrol the coastline in Argentina where Orcas come extremely close to the shore and beach themselves in order to catch one of the many sea lions which relax there in false sense of security. Once they get the sea lion they wait for the next wave to help them back into the water. It's just amazing and one of the best spots on earth to witness something truly remarkable. The spot is very popular for whales to come and mate/give birth too so it's well worth to go there for a short break!<p>If anyone ever visits Argentina make sure to stop by "Valdes Peninsula" and get a car rental for 1 or 2 days so you can explore the peninsula yourself and with a bit of luck spot some Orcas!
Orcas eating just the sharks liver is interesting, they have been known to eat only the tongue of whales, leaving the rest of the carcass. I'm guessing for similar reasons, tongue being tasty and highly nutritious to them.<p>This known behavior was used by whalers who had a pact with a group of orca in Eden, South Wales.
In exchange for helping the whalers hunt baleen whales, the whalers would leave the tongue of the whale to the orcas.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_South_Wales" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou...</a>
I wonder if lifeboats couldn't carry a little device that sounds (or smells) like a killer whale. Maybe sharks are never really that much of a problem.
That's amazing that the Orcas have evolved to know how to precisely extract and consume just the liver of (at least) one specific species in the ocean that they probably don't consume often
The obvious question is, do white sharks of similar size flee from Orcas or ones of smaller size? Otherwise, there's nothing surprising here. There's examples of Elephants fleeing from large prides of Lions, Lions fleeing from large packs of hyenas, etc. Similarly a small solitary Orca will likely flee from a group or a single, much larger, white shark.
"One of the whales rammed and killed the shark, and the duo proceeded to eat its liver" - is it hard to get a nice Chianti near the Farallon Islands?
I was hoping article was about a new John McAfee kink.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1079863420458074112?lang=en" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/107986342045807411...</a>