Whale Watchers Catch Rare Sighting of Orcas Devouring a Baby Humpback

Dean Fuchs runs whale-watching tours off Australia’s east coast, and he’s waited his whole life to see a baby humpback get mauled to death by a gang of orcas. On Saturday morning, while running a charter near Ballina, New South Wales, he got his wish.

The ABC reports that Dean and his crew of whale watchers were enjoying a front row seat to a family of frolicking humpbacks when, suddenly, a pod of about 30 killer whales emerged. The apex predators separated the calf from the adults—one of which was its mother, the other a male escort—before drowning and eating the juvenile. Dean described the gruesome scene as a "once in a lifetime experience.”

“It's been one of the things I have wanted to see my whole life and to finally get to see that was pretty special," he said.

The orcas reportedly surrounded the tour boat for more than two hours after slaughtering the calf, and Dean said they appeared to be celebrating and relishing the kill by bringing blubber over to the vessel. Julie Cummings, a passenger aboard the boat at the time, recalled that the orcas circled the trio of humpbacks before jumping on top of the calf.

"There was a lot of commotion and they eventually separated the baby from the mother and the male,” she told the ABC. "They proceeded to basically smother the baby by jumping onto it and covering its breathe hole and holding it down. It was all so sad but at the same time amazing.”

Julie noted that the mother and the escort had tried to rescue the calf, but were overwhelmed by assailants. "The last sighting of the baby was of it on its back with blood around its mouth,” she said. “Then we knew that the orcas had succeeded in their hunt.”

While the sheer brutality of this incident may seem shocking, please recall this story from a couple of years ago when it was found that orcas were eating the livers out of great white sharks and leaving their carcasses to wash up on the shore.

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