Orcas are muscling into the great white’s territory, turning apex against apex with surgical hunts for livers. When killer whales arrive, sharks flee—and ecosystems feel the shift.
A New Challenger Emerges
For decades, the great white shark has been cast as the ocean’s ultimate predator — a creature so feared that its very silhouette is enough to spark dread. But in the waters off Australia, that dominance is being seriously tested. The rival? None other than the orca, also known as the killer whale.
Recent peer-reviewed research confirms orcas are not limited to seals, fish, and dolphins; they also prey on great whites, using intelligence and coordination to outmaneuver an animal once thought untouchable.
The First Shocking Attack In Australia
The turning point came in October 2023, when a 4.7-metre great white washed up near Portland, Victoria. The carcass told a disturbing story: the mid-section containing the liver — and other internal organs — was missing, removed with striking precision. Genetic swabs from the bite wounds detected orca DNA, and sightings days earlier included locally catalogued individuals Bent Tip and Ripple in the area. It’s the first confirmed evidence of orca predation on a great white in Australian waters.¹
Footage released in June that captured the first instance of an orca whale feasting on a Great White Shark. Credit: Discovery
Surgical Hunters Of The Sea
Orcas have always been known for their intelligence, but their hunting strategies against sharks take it to another level. Rather than consuming an entire carcass, they target the nutrient-rich liver — a calorie-dense organ laden with lipids. Marine biologists have documented orcas flipping sharks upside down to induce tonic immobility — a paralysed state — before extracting the organ with remarkable accuracy.² It’s a chilling reminder that orcas don’t rely on brute force; they strategize.
Did you know?
A great white’s liver is so energy-dense that a single organ can offer a substantial caloric payoff — one reason orcas selectively target it.
Consequences For Marine Ecosystems
The rise of orca attacks could trigger major changes for shark populations and the ecosystems they help regulate. In South Africa, great white sightings plummeted and sharks abandoned key hunting grounds after specialized orca predation became established.³ A similar “landscape of fear” dynamic has been documented in California, where great whites rapidly fled the Farallon Islands when orcas appeared, redistributing foraging pressure on seals.⁴
If the same pattern unfolds in Australia, it may disrupt the balance of marine life. Fewer sharks could mean less control over seal and fish numbers, potentially reshaping entire food webs. Researchers caution that it’s too early to know how frequently such predation occurs in Australian waters — but top-predator shifts can cascade in unpredictable ways.
A New Order In The Ocean
The great white shark may still inspire awe, but the killer whale’s rise as a rival apex predator is rewriting the ocean’s hierarchy. These encounters are a stark reminder that in nature, even the most feared hunters are never beyond challenge.
Whether this trend remains localized or spreads more broadly is uncertain. But one thing is clear: the era of the great white’s uncontested rule is ending — and orcas are now sharing the crown.
Footnotes
Ecology and Evolution — “Genetic Evidence of Killer Whale Predation on White Sharks in Australia” — URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.70786
Marine Mammal Science — “We observed an adult killer whale kill and partially ingest a 3–4 m white shark near Southeast Farallon Island” (Pyle et al., 1999) — URL: https://www.birdpop.org/docs/pubs/Pyle_et_al_1999_White_Shark_Killer_Whale_Predation.pdf
The Washington Post — “Orcas are eating great white sharks’ livers off South Africa’s coast” — URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/07/02/orcas-eat-great-whites/
Scientific Reports (Nature) — “Killer whales redistribute white shark foraging pressure on seals” (Jorgensen et al., 2019) — URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39356-2
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Brian is a journalist who focuses on breaking news and major developments, delivering timely and accurate reports with in-depth analysis.
BrianFoster@glassalmanac.com
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