A violent gang battle involving over a dozen predatory orcas as well as a pair of defending humpback whales were recently caught by whale observers near the United States-Canada boundary. As per accounts, the furious match raged several hour shifts and involved breaching, tail-slapping, and biting flippers, including loud vocalizations audible from beyond the surface. However, it is unknown which species emerged triumphant.
This cetacean battle occurred on September 29 in the Salish Sea's Juan de Fuca Strait, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Victoria, British Columbia, and Port Angeles, Washington, under a report from the Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA).
Not shortly after, Captain Jimmy Zakreski from BC Whale Tours, another whale spotter, identified the likely reason for the orcas' enthusiasm - two humpback whales within their midst. Crew fellows on an Eagle Wing Tours whale-watching vessel initially glimpsed 15 "unusually active" orcas (Orcinus orca) beyond the surface. Observers aboard a neighboring BC Whale Tours vessel quickly observed what was prompting the orcas to act out - a couple of female humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae).
Cetaceans' Unusual Confrontation
Numerous spectators, particularly whale enthusiasts on a Sooke Coastal Explorations vessel, saw the odd altercation's course throughout the entire day, which lasted at least three hours. Nevertheless, whale watchers completely lost track of the epic battle as a dense veil of fog drifted in, thus the contest's outcome is currently unknown.
"I'm still attempting to wrap my brain behind it since it was simply fantastic," Sooke Coastal Explorations skipper Mollie Naccarato claimed in a statement from Live Science." At first, it appeared that the killer whales were hunting the humpbacks; but whenever there appeared to be space separating them, the humpbacks would return towards the orcas," she added.
The majority of the orcas in the group were recognized as members of three transitory killer whale tribes, the T109As, T233s, and T252s, which have been usually spotted throughout the vicinity. Transient orcas, commonly referred to as Bigg's killer whales, are one subspecies of orcas some of which are physically distinguished from the rest of the species. Transient orcas are significantly more violent than resident cetaceans, who reside in big groups linked to a certain location, according to MSN News.
Those humpbacks have also been recognized by respective identification numbers: BCX1948 (Reaper) and BCY1000 (Hydra). Reaper is a 4-year-old young female reported to spend the wintertime in spawning grounds off the coast of Jalisco, Mexico, while Hydra is an adult female documented to travel to Maui, Hawaii, where she has gotten pregnant to at least three calves. According to PWWA, if the humpback couple survives the encounter, they will resume their yearly migration in the coming weeks.
PWWA boats never once have directly seen orcas slaughtering a humpback whale within the Salish Sea, however, encounters between the two species have increased in the location since humpback whale numbers have recently rebounded after a dramatic fall triggered by climate change.
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Series of Orcas' Attacking Humpbacks
Another swarm of 13 orcas ambushed a humpback parent as well as her calf there in the Salish Sea in May 2021. At the time, witnesses suspected that the newborn whale was murdered, even though there was no concrete confirmation of this.
A juvenile male humpback nearly survived a 4-hour killer whale encounter in Australia in February 2021, although it lost its dorsal fin throughout the attempt. One thing all of these violent confrontations had in order was that at least a single of the humpbacks was a newborn or adolescent. And this is no coincidence, according to Erich Hoyt, a research associate at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) in the United Kingdom and the author of "Orca: The Whale Called Killer," as stated in a report from CBC News.
Contacts for both the two species, although, are not necessarily aggressive.
A pod of orcas liberated an intertwined humpback whale in January 2021, yet experts aren't sure whether this was pure compassion or a failed predation operation. Orcas also prey on other surprise marine megafauna, earning them their ominous moniker. A huge gang of roughly 70 orcas managed to kill a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) off Australia's coast in March 2021.
A brand-new study published in June this year found that perhaps a pair of orcas in South Africa were accountable for the deaths of at least seven great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) while tearing out its energy-rich livers, as reported by Science Times.
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