Killer Whale: The Great White’s Greatest Fear

Imagine for a moment that the formidable shark in Jawswere to meet face to face with the friendly orca from Free Willy. What would happen? A new study conducted by researchers at the Monterey Aquarium in California reveals that great whites are fearful of Willy and friends! This discovery confirms that the ultimate predator of the oceans, the one that reigns at the top of the food chain, is not the shark, but the killer whale!

Leaving before they’ve eaten their fill

Together with their team, Salvador Jorgensen and Scot Andersen from the Monterey Aquarium have been studying great white sharks on the US west coast for more than fifteen years. In order to study them more closely, they fit them with a satellite tag to track their movements. In 2009, researchers observe great whites roaming the waters of one of their favourite feeding grounds near the Farallon Islands, off the coast of San Francisco. However, their elephant seal hunt is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of two groups of killer whales. In a few hours, all the sharks have fled.

Between 2006 and 2013, similar encounters between sharks and killer whales occur three other times in the Farallon Islands with the same results. “When confronted by orcas, white sharks will immediately vacate their preferred hunting ground and will not return for up to a year, even though the orcas are only passing through,” notes Salvador Jorgensen in a press release.

But why do the sharks leave the Farallon Islands? Using electronic tags and field observations, researchers have dismissed the theory of competition for hunting elephant seals. Actually, the speed at which sharks are seen fleeing suggests that they are afraid!