This is the grisly moment a 50ft blue whale is eaten alive by a pack of bloodthirsty orcas off the Australian coast.
The orcas were captured tearing into the blue whale, causing a streak of blood in the water in their wake.
Jemma Sharp, who runs Whale Watch Western Australia, was only a few metres away from gruesome spectacle and recorded it on her camera.
She was on tour with 40 guests in a boat when the bloody battle erupted just off Bremer Bay in the Aussie state of Western Australia.
Jemma said the blue whale was set upon because it had accidentally swam into the orcas’ hunting and breeding ground.
She said it’s not uncommon for blue, humpback and minke whales swimming north from the Artic along the west Australian coastline to get unwittingly stuck in prime hunting territory.
The whale lover said it had left the large underwater animals in a “tricky situation” when on their migratory voyages.
“There’s no way around and they can’t get through,” she said.
Adult blue whales typically have the knowledge and experience to stay away from the feeding grounds.
But on this day, four pods of orcas – 75 individuals in total – grouped in the water after spotting the blue whale enter their territory.
The orcas are then seen “surging” towards the whale leaping in and out of the water “full of energy and adrenaline”, according to the whale watchers.
Over the next three hours, they worked together to exhaust the blue whale and tried trapping it on its side so it couldn’t breath through its blowhole.
Jemma said this didn’t work because the whale was too strong and that the matriarch “Queen” orca began biting the whale’s tail and jaw “repeatedly”.
She said the family of orcas put their body weight on the whale so he couldn’t fight back and saw the moment he took his last breast going under.
Jemma said the “heartbreaking moment” was ‘gold’ for researchers trying to document how orcas hunt larger pray from beginning to end.
“It was a meaningful moment for the animals to be fed, it was nice to see all the birds and sharks and pilot whales receive a vital meal.”
Jemma said the tourists on board felt compassion for both the orcas and the blue whale.
“They were completely blown away but had the capacity to appreciate the importance of what they were witnessing,” she said.
It comes as orca whales tore a great while shark to pieces, filling the water with blood.
The great white was mauled by killer whales that are forcing the massive sharks out of their natural habitats, scientists said.
The shocking video is part of Discovery Network’s 34th annual Shark Week.
While they were filming for Shark Week in South Africa, a drone camera captured the violent moment a pack of orcas attacked a great white, the Daily Beast reported.
The video shows a gargantuan killer whale tearing into the shark’s liver, spurting blood into ocean waters while two other orcas menacingly circle the scene.
Some scientists believe that the sharks may actually be fleeing from groups of orcas that are newly hunting the beasts.
This article by Adrian Zorzut was first published by The US Sun on 11 August 2022. Lead Image: A pack of Orcas were caught preying on a large blue whaleCredit: Watch Whale Western Australia.
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