[imagesource: Discovery]

Researchers have spent years documenting the gradual disappearance of great white sharks from the waters off Cape Town.

It’s been widely reported that Port and Starboard, two infamous orcas (or killer whales) that frequent these waters, have taken a liking to great white shark liver.

A study published recently in the African Journal of Marine Science, led by Alison Towner, a senior white shark biologist at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, further illustrated how the duo has thrown the entire ecosystem into turmoil.

All this time, we have never actually seen that predation occur. That’s why Towner is so excited about the video below, via The Daily Beast:

This footage, she reiterates several times as we speak over the phone, isn’t just astonishing—it’s historic. “It’s probably one of the most beautiful pieces of natural history ever filmed.”

“I really do think once that footage airs, it’s going to go viral,” she tells the Daily Beast. “The whole world is going to go into a frenzy about it because it’s just so unique.”

In the video, we see the orcas take out a nine-foot (roughly 2,75-metre) great white. One comes to the surface with the shark, having targeted the liver area, and blood spills out:

If that doesn’t work, you can also watch the video here.

We have seen footage from Knysna of orcas hunting a great white. In that case, however, we never saw a kill.

“We’ve had all the evidence for killer whales being responsible for killing white sharks,” Towner says. Carcasses have washed up on the beach with their livers missing. Data revealing a change in the whales’ cycling habits and revealing that the white sharks have fled the coasts where they used to habituate, suggesting a correlation.

“But this is the world’s first drone footage of killer whales predating on a white shark. It’s the first time in South Africa it’s ever been documented as direct evidence.”

The complete footage airs tonight on Shark House, a Discovery and Discovery+ show that forms part of the network’s famed Shark Week coverage.

Here’s hoping Discovery acts in a more responsible manner than they did when they aired that nonsense ‘documentary’, Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives, featuring a Hout Bay shark attack that never happened.

[source:dailybeast]