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Clash of the titans: Whale vs. Shark
October 8, 1997
Web posted at: 11:28 p.m. EDT (0328 GMT)SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Move over, Jaws. An underwater battle captured on videotape proves that killer whales are the kings of the sea.
The first known videotape of a clash between a killer whale and a great white shark has enthralled whale watchers all over the world.
"Nothing like this has been known to happen before," said Mary Jane Schramm, a naturalist who witnessed the attack Saturday off the Farallon Islands.
Marine biologists had assumed that the ocean's two big predators tended to avoid each other. But the tape shows otherwise.
The video was shot by wildlife enthusiasts on a cruise sponsored by the Oceanic Society. They were alerted by a radio transmission from a fisherman who had spotted two orcas in the area.
It's a whale of an attack!
2M/15 sec. QuickTime movie
The expedition found the two killer whales -- a 20-foot-long female and a youngster about half her length -- were still there, swimming idly about.
"Then we noticed this dark shape moving in the water, giving the orcas a wide berth," Schramm said.
The adult orca veered toward the dark shape, and then surged to the surface with a 10-foot-long great white shark in her jaws. "We were stunned," Schramm said.
The killer whale eventually swam away from the boat and began thrashing the shark on the surface of the water, a practice orcas typically employ with their prey.
Around this time, Peter Pyle, a great white shark expert with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, arrived on the scene. He got within 5 feet of the killer whales, then used a special underwater camera to record the attack.
Having made her kill, the victorious orca let her maternal instinct take over.
"The female apparently killed the shark, but she didn't eat it -- she was encouraging the calf to feed," Schramm said.
Schramm said the calf "especially liked the liver. You know how hard it can be to get kids to eat. Not him, though."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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