Killer whales attack and eat sharks

Several populations of skilled orcas around the world have learned how to overcome sharks using a combination of superior brain power and brute force.

The Great White and Mako are just two of at least nine species of shark known to be eaten by some orca families.

Populations of orcas in territories across the globe - including New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Farallon Islands off America's west coast - have devised a number of strategies for tackling sharks.

But to make sure they don't end up seriously injured when attacking such dangerous prey, the orcas spend years perfecting the various techniques and watching more experienced adults demonstrate how to do it properly.

"The most impressive strategy is the 'karate chop'," said expert Dr Ingrid Visser, 43, who has studied orca behaviour for 17 years.

"The orca will use its tail to drive the shark to the surface. They don't even touch it. Using an up-thrust of its tail it creates a vortex which pushes the shark up on they current they create with their movements.

"Once the shark is at the surface, the killer whale pivots and lifts its tail out of the water and comes down on top of it like a karate chop."

The orca then grasps the shark and turns it upside down - suggesting that they may somehow understand shark biology.

When sharks are quickly flipped upside down, they enter a paralysed state known as 'tonic immobility'.

"It's not that the orca understands the physiology of the shark," said Dr Visser, from Tutukaka, North Island, New Zealand.. "But it does demonstrate that they understand the behavioural consequences of what will happen if they take a certain action.

"You don't need to understand how a car works in order to drive it. All you need to know is the individual behaviours that make the car go.

"In the same way, it seems the orcas that can do this have learned that if they turn the shark upside down, they don't fight back. They simply manipulate that to their advantage."

Other methods observed by scientists and witnesses include 'corralling', where groups of orcas circle a lone shark and ram it or stealthily approach the shark from directly below and catch it off guard by attacking its underbelly.

"They always eventually turn the shark upside down," added Dr Visser. "At that point the shark cannot fight back, it has been a successful hunt and they can feed.

"We don't think that the orcas are specifically making a decision to go out and hunt shark. The marine world can be a difficult place to find food. When there is an opportunity, an orca will take it."

Dr Visser is a leading orca researcher and has pioneered several discoveries in orca behaviour. She was the first to record orcas hunting hammerhead and thresher sharks.

See and read more about this incredible behaviour in the December issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Whales save seal from orcas

There are plenty of stories of cetaceans saving humans. Indeed, Jonah was rescued by a whale when he was thrown overboard, and there have been tales of dolphins assisting swimmers in distress or shielding them from circling sharks.

Killer whales, however — themselves a species of dolphin — didn't get their name for nothing. Early Basque whalers called them whale killers when they saw them attacking other whales. Hunting like a pack of wolves, orca know no fear. They'll tear the throats from grey whale calves, and have even been known to take chunks out of sperm whales — the largest predators that ever lived.

But here's a sight to gladden the eye. Earlier this year, Californian scientists Robert L Pitman and John W Durban sailed to the Antarctic in search of killer whales. They were looking for a possible new species, known to hunt Weddell seals — one of the plumpest of the pinnipeds (the suborder that includes seals and sea lions) — by washing them off ice floes with their wake.

That's what was happening here — until a group of humpback whales arrived on the scene. Unlike orca, which are odontocetes or toothed whales, humpbacks are mysticetes, harmless leviathans with only baleen plates in their mouths.

Doubtless open-mouthed themselves, Pitman and Durban — along with a film crew from the BBC Natural History unit — watched as one seal, swept into the water by the orca, swam towards the humpbacks.

As the killer whales moved in, the plucky pinniped leapt on to the vast ribbed belly of a humpback, and nestled in the animal's armpit. Not only that, but when a wave threatened to return the seal to danger, the humpback used its massive flipper (at five metres, the longest in the animal kingdom) to nudge it back on.

"Moments later the seal scrambled off and swam to the safety of a nearby ice floe," wrote the scientists. They believe the seal triggered a maternal defence mechanism in the humpbacks. Whatever the truth, it's a heartening tale. But spare a thought for the orca. They've got kids to feed, too.

J46 named Star

A Star is born! On November 11, 2009 a brand new baby whale was seen in J pod swimming next to its mother at mid-day near the west side of San Juan Island. A few hours later at sunset the new baby and its extended family swam past the Victoria, BC waterfront before turning back toward Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound for the night. On the 12th and 13th of November the new baby and family traveled extensively near Seattle, WA where they were received with great media excitement; and, on the 14th of November they were back near Victoria, BC. This family tour of the endangered whales’ core habitat with a new baby seemed to be like “showing off” for a well-wishing crowd of humans that swarm the shores and waters watching them, but really they were looking for food – salmon. Puget Sound Chum salmon are in season for the whales’ diet in early winter, but Chinook salmon are their mainstay diet year-round throughout their range, and they too are endangered.

The new baby is designated J46, and we are going to call it “Star”, for the role that it will play in showing the human inhabitants in this region that it is important to clean up Puget Sound and restore healthy abundant salmon populations to the Pacific Northwest. That mission brings a message to all of the relevant human nations – USA, Canada, First Nations, Treaty, and non-Treaty – that the first intelligent mammal residents of the region are also investing in these efforts. We could not ask for a more charismatic indicator, a baby whale, to measure the success of our renewed efforts for restoration. J pod is the most watched family of whales in the Pacific Northwest, or perhaps in the world; and, this is the first year in recent decades that they have produced three babies within one year. We will all be watching, here and worldwide, carefully and respectfully, to see if they beat the odds and all survive. This is the reality show that really means something.

Orca calf receives Samish name. Se-Y´-Chn

An orca calf has been given a traditional name by the Samish Indian Nation.

On Oct. 17, Samish hosted a naming ceremony and potlatch at its Fidalgo Bay Resort for the killer whale, which received the name Se-Y´-Chn. Witnesses included Jeanne Hyde, coordinator of the Orca Adoption Program at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor.

The name, pronounced “sea-ee-chin,” means “younger one.” The killer whale is a member of the Southern Resident pods that spend much of the year in the ancestral waters of the Samish people. The Center for Whale Research, which maintains a census of the killer whales, has designated the orca as J45.

Other members of Se-Y´-Chn’s family include Samish (J14), Hy’Shqa (J37), and Suttles (J40); J40 was named by the Samish in honor of the late Dr. Wayne Suttles, the noted anthropologist who devoted his career to the study of the Coast Salish culture and language, in 2005.

The Southern Resident killer whales are listed as an endangered species in the U.S. and Canada. The population is 86, according to the Center for Whale Research. The biggest threats to the whales’ survival are diminished runs of salmon, their primary prey; as well as pollution and interference from vessels.

New baby orca reported in J Pod; 87 in Salish Sea

The Orca Network says a newborn killer whale has been spotted in J Pod, which was seen Wednesday in waters off the San Juan Islands and near Victoria.

The Network's Susan Berta says the calf has been given the designation J-46. Its presumed mother is a 16-year-old orca known as J-28 or Polaris.

Another baby killer whale was reported last month in L pod.

The Kitsap Sun reports the births bring the total population of three orca pods to 87 in the Salish Sea waters of Washington and British Columbia.