Esther Jacobs smelled murder on the water. As the pungent odor of shark liver filled the air and an oily sheen spread across the surface, Jacobs came upon an aquatic crime scene – and the killer whales, the two notorious serial killers.
They were the killer whales known as Port and Starboard who had been rampaging the Southern Cape coast. Their surprising victims: great white sharks.
Shark experts such as Jacobs have spent years trying to figure out how orcas – the largest of the dolphin family – are so easily dispatching some of the fiercest predators in the ocean, and why they’re using such grisly methods.
On her June 2023 voyage into Mossel Bay, Jacobs didn’t know that danger still lurked below. Then she spotted the killer whales Port and Starboard – and watched the latter stalk a great white, disembowel its liver and then show off this gruesome trophy to a human audience on a nearby boat.
“It was surreal,” said Jacobs, the founder of Keep Fin Alive, a marine conservation and education nonprofit. She added: “I’ve always seen [great white sharks] as this incredibly powerful apex predator. So to see one just get picked off so easily … it’s really mind blowing.
”Full story here
Story by Jonathan Edwards
Read more: Shark Sightings, Shark Warnings, Shark Dramas – Notes From The Editor
Further reading: A-Frames and Sharks at Seal Point – Notes From The Editor
also: Shark Warning For Seal Point
further: New Mall Planned For St Francis Bay. This One’s For Real
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