Video footage has captured orcas in the Gulf of California targeting young great white sharks, flipping them to access their livers. Researchers documented this behavior on two occasions, suggesting a specialized shark-hunting group of orcas. The tactic induces temporary paralysis in the sharks, allowing the orcas to feed efficiently.
In August 2020, independent marine biologist Erick Higuera and his colleagues recorded five female orcas in the Gulf of California working together to hunt a juvenile great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). The orcas rammed the shark to flip it upside down, forcing it into a state of tonic immobility that paralyzed it temporarily. This allowed them to reach the shark's energy-rich liver, which they shared among the group. Minutes later, the pod repeated the attack on another adolescent great white.
The team captured similar footage in August 2022, showing another group of five orcas using the same technique near the same location and time of year. Some orcas from the 2020 incident had been previously observed hunting whale sharks and bull sharks, though the 2022 footage was not clear enough to confirm if it was the same pod. Higuera noted, “The orcas were ramming the great white to flip it upside down.”
This discovery marks the first video evidence of orcas preying on juvenile great whites in the region. Prior known instances include a 1997 killing off San Francisco, a 2023 carcass near Australia showing orca attack signs, and one recorded case in South Africa. Only a few orca populations worldwide are known to feed on sharks, with even fewer targeting great whites.
Higuera described orcas as “hunting machines. They are like snipers – they use specific hunting strategies, very specific ones depending on their prey.” The findings, published in Frontiers in Marine Science (DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1667683), suggest these orcas may belong to a previously unrecognized shark-eating group. Andrew Trites at the University of British Columbia agreed, stating, “So now we have an example of another unique feeding strategy that probably isn’t shared by any other group of [orcas] in the world.” However, more research is needed to confirm if they are distinct from Pacific Northwest orcas that hunt other sharks.