NewsWhen killers hunt killers

When killers hunt killers

Created: 10/09/2022, 4:35 p.m

Groß gegen klein: Eine Gruppe Schwertwale (Orcinus orca) verfolgt einen Schwarm Delfine (Delphinus delphis) in der False Bay, Südafrika.
Big versus small: A pod of killer whales (Orcinus orca) pursue a school of dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in False Bay, South Africa. imago images © imago

Great white sharks not only spread fear and terror along South Africa’s coast – they also attract numerous adventure travelers. Now another predator of the seas is threatening that balance

For years, the population of the southern South African coastline has been worried about what – for God’s sake – is going on with their tourist magnets. Fewer and fewer of the legendary Great White Sharks can be spotted off their coast: If things continue like this, the world’s largest predatory fish, which can be up to six meters long, will soon have completely disappeared along with the streams of visitors and their contributions to the local economy.

Not that the people along the coasts are on good terms with their animal neighbors themselves: one of the great white sharks with its razor-sharp rows of teeth repeatedly kills someone. A 39-year-old Cape Town restaurant owner was killed by a shark at the end of September. However, such occurrences do not deter onlookers from flocking to the shores: after all, the timid person is drawn to the monstrous image of the king of the seas of all things. Steven Spielberg exploited the ambivalent relationship in his horror thriller “Jaws” (1975).

Humans can’t get close enough to the killer, who seems to be grinning meanly: Small companies have been offering encounters with great white sharks at a centimeter distance for years. For this purpose, the visitors are let into the water in steel cages – so that sharks are guaranteed to shake the cages, they are attracted with raw meat or seductive sounds. Nevertheless, the fear-inspiring fish can be seen less and less.

Five killer whales against a shark

There was wild speculation about the reasons. Some blamed global warming for the disappearance of great sharks, others blamed the nets that are stretched in the water off the most popular beaches to protect them from the killers. Quite a few of the great white sharks get caught in it and die in agony. Still others blamed foreign fishing fleets that use their trawl nets to sweep away anything that moves in the water. And occasionally stories made the rounds of even more legendary monsters: Orcas, the killer whales, would attack the sharks.

Divers reported dramatic encounters between orcas and great white sharks, in which the latter would have lost out. But instead of eating their victims, the orcas would only have ripped a hearty bite out of them, which would later turn out to be the liver of the great white shark. However, the stories sounded so mysterious that hardly anyone wanted to believe them. Haven’t orcas been the loveliest inhabitants of our seas since the movie “Free Willy” at the latest?

But now the alleged fairy tales have been confirmed by a higher authority. In May of this year, scientists who study the behavior of orcas managed to film five killer whales chasing a great white shark from a drone and a helicopter: They published their observations and videos last week in the magazine “Ecology” and known over the internet. Marine biologist Alison Towner from the Marine Dynamics Academy in the coastal town of Gansbaai knows that these are the first images in the world to show orcas attacking a great white shark.

The breathtaking shots are as clear as in a National Geographic documentary: the great white shark being pursued by a black and white orca can be clearly seen, four other orcas follow at the required distance. The great white shark tries to secure its life by swimming in the smallest circles: Because the larger orca also has the larger turning circle, the killer whale will never be able to get the killer fish like this. However, the shark’s tactics have a catch: in order to escape, it’s not enough to swim in small circles.

Finally, a second orca puts an end to the hunt: he interrupts the great white shark’s circles and rips the already mentioned delicacy, the liver, out of his body. According to Towner, the spooky spectacle happened two more times that day in May, but there are no pictures of it.

What the scientists also learned: Only one of the orcas was known to also attack great white sharks – its four companions had been proven never to have done so. The joint raid was also a lesson, the researchers speculate in “Ecology” magazine: The orcas obviously learn from each other what behavior researchers call “cultural transmission”.

For the people along South Africa’s southern coast, the “cultural transmission” of orcas does not bode well. After the drive hunt in front of the small coastal town of Mossel Bay, all the great white sharks in the region disappeared: the cultural transmission obviously works well for them too. But what happens when the orca’s craving for liver gets out of control? Then, with the great white sharks, vacationers from overseas will soon be gone, along with their contributions to the local economy. Who wants to stare at the sea for hours or go under water in a steel cage when there is no danger lurking there?

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