According to a marine biologist, a blue whale chased and killed off the southwest coast of Australia, a marine biologist hunted in an hour-long battle and killed them. .
Initially, it looked like a normal day of whale watching, said Kristy Brown, a marine biologist at Naturaliste Charters, a company that holds whale watching tours in Western Australia. The vessel happened on two pods of orka’s in the Bremer Bay Canyon, about 45 kilometers off the coast, which ‘played waves and surfed’, Brown wrote in a blog post from March 16.
But soon, people on the boat noticed that the orcs were causing non-uniform wave surges. It was strange; if orcas, for example, hunt whales, they tend to move in harmony and make waves rise in one direction. “But it was different, these thrusts were widespread,” Brown said. Then, around 11:30 local time, a long, high blow ensued. [spray] which remained in the air … It was a blue whale, estimated at 16 meters [52 feet] long, with many years left to live. ‘
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It is unclear whether the prey was a juvenile blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) or a dwarf blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda), as ‘both use these waters’, Brown said in an email to Live Science. However, the blue beast made a big mistake when it ventured into the gorge system, where the orcas swim, alone.
Despite their name, orcs (Orcinus orca), also called killer whales, are not whales. They are rather the largest species of the dolphin family, according to the Ocean Conservancy. And as their name “killer” suggests, these marine mammals are known for hunting all kinds of prey, including humpback whales, seals, sea turtles and even great white sharks.
In this case, although the blue whale was almost twice as long as the largest orca, which can grow to about 9.5 meters in length, it can not shake off its pursuers. ‘It was completely surrounded by orca[s] while swimming, “Brown wrote in the blog. In addition, the orcs do not seem to be chasing the hunt, but rather ‘strategic, thoughtful, cooperative, patient’ [and] persistently, ‘Brown wrote in the blog.
In cyclical waves, there were multiple orcs on the animal, which struggled with it and swam quickly along and below it, while others dropped the chase to rest in our wake and sail along and along the hunt, easily 200m [656 feet] back, “she said. It seemed like ‘their goal to tire the blue,’ she remarked.
Meanwhile, more and more orcs were arriving, and soon there were ‘at least six big men for different pods,’ “Brown said. There are between six and twelve orcs at each pod, so it showed the extent of how many orcs were involved in this hunt, she said. Even baby orcas that were still yellow and red – colors that are likely to come from their blood vessels which has yet to be covered by thick blubber – “was learned there, up close,” Brown said.
As one large group, the orcas propelled the blue whale from the Bremer Canyon system from about 280 meters deep (1000 m) to the shallower continental shelf, which is only 80 meters deep. Brown hears “the break and tail clapping above and a chaos of clicks and sounds from below as the orcs push the blue forward.”
Unlike the baleen blue whale, the orcas have teeth, a weapon they cut on the jaw of this blue whale. “When the whale turned and spun, the orcs held on – they wanted the tongue,” Brown said. “[They] waited for the jaw to loosen, but it would not. ‘
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The blue whale fought to the end. “It did not want to give up, it went down and for a moment we thought it was all over. Yet his tail would rise again and again, thick and silver in the dark ocean, surrounded by black and thundering fins,” Brown said.
Just before 3 p.m. local time, after hours of this “feverish and chaotic” hunt, the blue whale succumbed to its attackers, Brown said. “A bubble of blood rose to the surface like a bursting red balloon,” she recalls. Thereafter, the orcs “split the carcass as it was shared with all involved in the depths below,” Brown said. “We saw some rubbish, just one meat, and it was gone.”
A hammerhead shark and longfin whales (another type of ocean dolphin) tried to grab some of the whale meat, but the orcas guarded their prey fiercely. On the boat, “a number of patrons [were] in tears, some stunned silence, others excited and intrigued, ‘Brown said.
This is the third time Naturalist Charters has recorded orcas taking down a blue whale, Brown told WordsSideKick in an email. “Both were in April 2019 and were two weeks apart,” she said. In 2020 “our season was cut short last year due to COVID-19, so we were not at sea when the blue whales migrated northwards from Antarctica (mid-March, April, May), so we do not know if the same dynamic took place last year. ‘
Originally published on Live Science.