Videos show orcas hunting great white sharks, eating their livers

A pod of orcas off the coast of Mexico have attacked great white sharks by flipping them on their backs to stun them, then slicing them open to eat their livers.

Some orcas have a taste for liver — specifically, the livers of great white sharks.

Videos taken by scientists in Mexico reveal how the crafty whales manage to snag bites of the apex predators’ fatty organs.

Researchers filmed two orca hunts in the Gulf of California — one in 2020 and another in 2022. They show the pods attacking young great white sharks by flipping them on their backsides to stun them, then slicing their sides open to extract their livers. The team published the findings of their video studies in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on Monday.

In one of the videos, all members of the pod share the pink liver fat while the rest of the shark’s body sinks into the ocean’s depths. During the hunt, a sea lion lurks, seemingly trying to sneak away with a free meal. But the orcas blow bubbles, apparently to deter the pest.

Erick Higuera-Rivas, a marine biologist and documentarian who filmed the hunts from a boat nearby, said he didn’t immediately recognize the significance of the footage until he went to edit it.