BenKK
AH elite
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2018
- Messages
- 1,502
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Northern Territory, Australia
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- 176
From Facebook the other day...
Even with a sometimes playful nature, a sophisticated family and social structure, killer whales are the ocean's top predator, and so we bear witness to some intense and powerful encounters. Early last Thursday several family groups teamed up to attack and kill the largest prey, a blue whale. In the middle of an intense lightning storm with visibility less than 200m we literally stumbled onto this colossal event just 12nm off the coast about halfway to the usual offshore research zone. The blue had wounds though fought on for almost an hour before giving in and was held under long enough to drown and/or bleed out. In awe, we witnessed about 50 killer whales feed on their prize for the next 6 hours, then the winds and sea forced our return to port. Off WA smaller sized cetaceans have shown to be a regular annual prey source for the orca. Even though this is the first recorded encounter (off Australia) of a large baleen whale succumbing to an attack, it's likely other large whales (including blues) often face the risk of predation from killer whales.
Even with a sometimes playful nature, a sophisticated family and social structure, killer whales are the ocean's top predator, and so we bear witness to some intense and powerful encounters. Early last Thursday several family groups teamed up to attack and kill the largest prey, a blue whale. In the middle of an intense lightning storm with visibility less than 200m we literally stumbled onto this colossal event just 12nm off the coast about halfway to the usual offshore research zone. The blue had wounds though fought on for almost an hour before giving in and was held under long enough to drown and/or bleed out. In awe, we witnessed about 50 killer whales feed on their prize for the next 6 hours, then the winds and sea forced our return to port. Off WA smaller sized cetaceans have shown to be a regular annual prey source for the orca. Even though this is the first recorded encounter (off Australia) of a large baleen whale succumbing to an attack, it's likely other large whales (including blues) often face the risk of predation from killer whales.
