The ocean’s hierarchy just got flipped. Literally. For decades, we’ve been told the great white shark is the ultimate shadow in the water, the apex predator that fears nothing. But lately, things have gotten weird. Or more accurately, they’ve gotten surgical.
An orca attack on great white shark isn’t just a rare "clash of the titans" anymore. It’s becoming a documented, repetitive, and terrifyingly efficient hunting strategy that has scientists rethinking everything they thought they knew about marine biology.
If you think these two animals meet in the middle of the ocean for a fair fight, you’re mistaken. It’s not a brawl; it’s an execution.
The precision of the liver snatchers
Imagine a 13,000-pound killer whale approaching a 2,500-pound great white. You’d expect a bloody, hours-long struggle, right? Not even close.
In June 2023, researchers off the coast of Mossel Bay, South Africa, watched an orca named Starboard take down a juvenile great white in under two minutes. Two minutes. He didn't even need his usual partner, Port. Most of the time, these two brothers—distinguishable by their floppy, collapsed dorsal fins—work as a duo. This time, Starboard went solo.
He gripped the shark’s left pectoral fin, shoved it forward, and basically eviscerated the animal on the spot.
The goal? The liver.
Great white shark livers are massive. They can account for up to a third of the shark's total body weight. More importantly, they are packed with squalene and high-energy lipids. For an orca, that liver is a calorie-dense superfood. It’s basically a massive stick of butter in a world where every calorie counts.
What’s truly haunting is the "surgical" nature of the wound. These orcas don't eat the whole shark. They make a precise tear near the pectoral fins, squeeze the liver out—sometimes it literally pops out because of the pressure—and leave the rest of the carcass to sink or wash ashore.
The secret weapon: Tonic Immobility
You might wonder how a shark, which is basically a swimming tube of muscle and teeth, lets this happen.
Orcas are smart. Scary smart.
They’ve figured out a glitch in the shark’s biology called tonic immobility. If you flip a shark upside down, its brain enters a catatonic state. It becomes paralyzed. It can’t fight back. It can’t even really process what’s happening.
💡 You might also like: Elliana Rose Campbell Obituary: The Legacy of a Real-Life Butterfly
Biologists like Dr. Alison Towner, who has been tracking Port and Starboard for years, have seen this play out in real-time. The orcas will ram the shark from the side or use their massive tails to create a vortex, disorienting the shark enough to flip it. Once the shark is belly-up, it’s over. The orca can take its time extracting the liver while the "apex predator" is essentially asleep.
It’s not just South Africa anymore
For a while, people thought Port and Starboard were just two "weird" outliers. But the behavior is spreading.
- Mexico (November 2025): New footage from the Gulf of California showed a specialist pod, dubbed Moctezuma’s pod, repeatedly targeting juvenile great whites.
- Australia (February 2025): DNA tests on a 4.7-meter great white that washed up near Portland, Victoria, confirmed it was killed by orcas. It was the first hard evidence of this "liver-only" predation in Australian waters.
- The Farallon Islands: Off the coast of California, great whites have been known to vanish for an entire season the moment a single orca pod enters the area.
The "Flight" response and ecological chaos
When an orca attack on great white shark occurs, the neighborhood changes instantly. Great whites don't stick around to "defend their turf." They flee.
Scientists call this a fear-induced displacement. In South Africa’s Gansbaai and False Bay, once the world's premier hotspots for shark cage diving, the great whites have largely disappeared. Some tagged sharks have been recorded swimming hundreds of miles away within days of an orca sighting.
This creates a "trophic cascade."
Basically, when the big boss (the great white) leaves, the middle managers take over. In False Bay, the population of Cape fur seals has exploded because the sharks aren't there to eat them. These seals are now decimating local fish stocks and even attacking endangered African penguins. Meanwhile, bronze whaler sharks and sevengill sharks, usually prey for the great whites, have moved into the shallow waters, shifting the entire balance of the ecosystem.
Is this a new behavior?
Honestly, we don't know for sure.
Some researchers argue that orcas have always done this, but we just didn't have the drone technology to see it. Others think it’s a learned culture. Orcas are highly social; they teach their young how to hunt. If one matriarch figures out that shark liver is a buffet, she teaches her pod.
🔗 Read more: Dallas North Tollway Accident: What You Need to Know About This Notorious Stretch of Road
There's also the "offshore" ecotype theory. These are orcas that live way out in the deep ocean and are known to have heavily worn-down teeth from eating rough shark skin. It’s possible that as ocean temperatures shift or traditional prey like bluefin tuna decline, these offshore specialists are moving closer to the coast and showing the locals how it’s done.
What this means for the future
We have to stop looking at great whites as the undisputed kings of the sea. They are vulnerable. In South Africa, the combination of orca predation and human threats—like the shark nets used to "protect" beaches—is pushing the local population toward a breaking point.
Marine biologist Enrico Gennari recently noted that with only an estimated 500 to 1,000 white sharks left in South African waters, this isn't sustainable.
The "orca vs. shark" narrative is great for headlines, but for the ocean, it’s a signal of massive instability. When the top of the food chain starts eating the second-to-top, the foundations start to crumble.
Actionable insights for ocean enthusiasts:
- Support non-lethal shark deterrents: If you live in a coastal area, advocate for "shark spotter" programs instead of gill nets or drum lines, which kill sharks and don't stop orcas.
- Follow the data, not the drama: Use resources like the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy or Marine Dynamics to see real-time tracking of these animals.
- Understand the "Liver Smell": If you’re ever on a boat and the water suddenly smells like "metallic oil" or "vitamin-rich cod liver oil," there’s a good chance an orca just finished a meal nearby.
The ocean is changing. The orcas are winning. And the great white shark is learning the hard way that in the deep blue, there is always a bigger, smarter fish—or in this case, a mammal.
Next steps for monitoring this phenomenon: Keep an eye on the 2026 migration patterns in Mossel Bay; researchers expect to see if Starboard’s solo hunting technique is being adopted by younger orcas in the area.