[imagesource: Twitter / @UrbanEdgeSharks]
The local pair of killer whales renowned for their insatiable hunger for shark livers have ripped into a whopping 17 sharks in just one day.
The infamous orcas, named Port and Starboard by marine conservationists, essentially upended the food chain in Cape Town’s waters, having already decimated the great white shark population in the area.
Now they’ve apparently moved on to broadnose sevengill sharks, having attacked and killed at least 17 of them within 24 hours on February 24, notes EarthSky.
The shark carcasses were found washed up on the beach by researchers from the Marine Dynamics academy who have been tracking Port and Starboard’s hunting habits since they arrived in the region in 2015.
Every single shark had their liver missing, with bites made with surgical precision. A shark’s liver is a highly nutritious organ, one which the orcas devour due to its abundance of a compound called squalene, which is a precursor vital for the production of hormones, experts say, per Daily Mail.
At least 17 sevengill #sharks have been killed by infamous #killerwhale pair Port & Starboard this week in South Africa. Only the livers were eaten with the leftover carcasses washing ashore [1/3]
@MarineDynamics Christine Wessels pic.twitter.com/PQVk1KI9mF
— Dr. Alison Kock (@UrbanEdgeSharks) February 24, 2023
In 2017 and 2019, great white sharks were washing up on the coast with just their livers eaten out of their bodies.
By 2020, the massive great white shark population in South Africa’s False Bay had all but moved out:
The ruthless hunting prowess of Port and Starboard off South Africa has allowed researchers to determine that sharks have flight responses as part of a rare study.
The drama didn’t stop there. In 2017 this pair then started targeting #greatwhitesharks, ultimately resulting in the sharks abandoning established aggregation sites, in work led by @AlisonTowner1 https://t.co/hCfzgdrDFG [3/3] pic.twitter.com/xeyn7MVnJC
— Dr. Alison Kock (@UrbanEdgeSharks) February 24, 2023
Only three studies have ever touched on a flight response among sharks, but a paper released in October suggested the widely feared sharks did not return to their natural hunting grounds because they were scared off by an earlier massacre.
The study’s lead author Alison Towner and her team shared Christiaan Stopforth’s drone footage capturing the killer whales hunting and eating the livers of great white sharks:
Dr Alison Kock, South African National Parks’ shark expert, said this dynamic had “significant knock-on effects for both the ecosystem and shark-related tourism”.
It is known that new behaviours spread among killer whales over time through cultural transmission, so it is concerning to consider what would happen to the larger shark population if more orcas adopted a taste for liver along with these incredible hunting practices.
Just remember, as easy as it might be to demonise the orcas, they’re likely just adapting to the depletion of nutritious food options in the sea, most probably caused by our overfishing habits.
It’s adapt or die out there, after all.
