Posted on 07/06/2022 6:10:30 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
A pair of orcas killing great white sharks by ripping open their torsos for their livers — and as a result scaring away great whites from a South African region — has raised questions about whether that could happen along Cape Cod.
But it’s “really too early to say” if killer whales will descend upon the Massachusetts coast and drive away the growing great white shark population, a local shark expert tells the Herald.
“When there have been orca sightings here through the years, they’ve never really seemed to impact the white sharks in the area,” said John Chisholm, who is with the New England Aquarium and verifies shark sighting reports on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app.
“Will we see what happened in South Africa happen here? Time will tell,” he added. “We just have to wait and see.”
The two killer whales that have been terrorizing great whites off the coast of South Africa have driven away sharks from their aggregation site, a new study reveals.
The shark researchers used long-term sightings and tagging data to show that the great whites have been avoiding certain regions of the Gansbaai coast because they’re afraid of being hunted by orcas.
Since 2017, eight great whites have washed up on shore following an orca attack. Seven of them had their livers removed, and some had their hearts taken out, too.
Their wounds were distinctively made by the same pair of orcas, which have likely killed more great whites that haven’t washed up on shore.
Before the orcas arrived, Gansbaai was a world-renowned place for spotting great whites, with tourists across the globe visiting and partaking in cage diving.
“The more the orcas frequent these sites, the longer the great white sharks stay away,” said Alison Towner, a senior white shark biologist at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust.
The South African sea’s ecosystem is changing as a result of the orca attacks.
“It has triggered the emergence of a new mesopredator to the area, the bronze whaler shark — which is known to be eaten by the great white shark — and these bronze whalers are also being attacked by the orcas too,” Towner said.
With no great whites in the area, seals can prey on critically endangered African penguins or compete for the small fish they eat.
In May, an orca was spotted by a fisherman off Cape Cod, which is not a common sighting in the waters off Massachusetts.
The orca was later identified as “Old Thom” by Chisholm. Old Thom has been spotted in the region in past years and has a unique notch in his dorsal fin.
Over the years, there have not been any reports of orcas and sharks interacting around here.
“Of the sharks we tagged, there doesn’t seem to be a change in behavior when the orcas are present,” Chisholm said. “So in terms of the Cape, it’s really too early to say if orcas will come and have an impact here.”
There is the case of the Australian Orcas that used to alert whalers to where the whales were located so they could eat the whale tongues after they had been harpooned.
Evidently these are trophy hunters.
Orcas, the greatest apex predator on earth.
They’ll vote for the Kennedys.
If somebody or something was trying to tear me open to eat my liver, I think I’d relocate, too.
“Seven of them had their livers removed,”
It’s an old Atlantic message. It means they sleep with the fishes.
LOL! I remember decades ago when SEA HUNT was a popular show. One episode had a killer whale eating swimmers. One of the divers in that show said “we should wipe them all out!”
My how attitudes have changed.
I saw a documentary filmed off the California coast by the Catalina Islands that talked about how the orcas turned the whites upside down and held them there till they went catatonic,,, then tore them up to eat only the liver.
That the smell of shark liver drove all the local sharks away for quite a while.
I wondered then why some entreuponer hasn’t hunted shark for liver oil to make shark repellant.
The flower child descendants sure love themselves wolves, cougars and sharks. Saw tim faulkner talking about how sharks are so misunderstood , not savage hunters, as the liar got into a steel shark cage to veiw some.
I have only seen a few Orcas while offshore fishing in Mass Bay. And I have plenty of time out there.
Apparently it doesn't take to many Orcas to wreak havoc on the white sharks, if they are so inclined. - Tom
Looks like they picked the wrong week to SCUBA dive.
I like him and his show, but that just torqued my jaws.
And they eat. A great deal. Sharks are mostly solitary hunters while orcas do the pod thing.
And they will kill humans.
Not sure orcas will bring the improvement people seem to be hoping for.
“And they will kill humans.”
Noooo! Not Shamu!
Orcas feed on seals too.
The Orcas are racist. They only hunt Great White Sharks and would not take a bit out of the Great Black Sharks of Nantucket.
Years ago near Pt. Defiance (Tacoma) we were salmon fishing out of a 14 foot rental skiff and a pod of killer whales moved in. One bull got so close I could have touched his 6 foot dorsal fin. The fishing action dropped off to zero.
PS stay out of the ocean. :)
I live in a place that has a lot of orca. I can’t think of a single event where a wild orca was responsible for a human death. Cougars, yeah...even beavers and a mountain goat...never an orca.
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