While fishing off the coast of Honduras in 2023, a group of anglers stumbled upon a rare sight: a pod of orcas hunting down a sperm whale.
The underwater attack unfolded over many minutes alongside the anglers’ vessel.
Now, over a year later, biologists have tracked down eyewitness accounts of the incident as well as videos and photos, which were included in a study published on Jan. 13 in the journal Aquatic Mammals.
The study represents the first documented case of orcas hunting sperm whales in the waters off the Central American country, a stretch of the Caribbean Sea that has been “relatively unexplored.”
“This encounter truly surprised us,” Gabriela Ochoa, one of the study’s authors, said in a journal news release.
The coordinated hunt
It all began when a trio of hobbyist anglers were sailing off Honduras’ Bay Islands — about 30 miles from the mainland — on Nov. 24, 2023.
They noticed a flurry of activity in the distance.
Upon maneuvering closer, they spotted three orcas — an adult male and a mother-calf pair — circling a sperm whale, which measured under 20 feet.
“According to the anglers, the attack was already underway when they arrived as the killer whales were observed coordinating their attack on the sperm whale in waves,” the study said.
For the next half-hour, the two adult orcas, by turns, bit the whale and dragged it underwater, attempting to prevent it from surfacing.
Then the massive marine mammals disappeared beneath the waves, leaving the anglers in suspense.
After about 20 minutes, “large chunks of blubber and blood” materialized at the surface — signaling the hunt had been successful.
The whale’s carcass eventually floated into view, and the anglers watched for about an hour as the orcas sank their teeth into their hard-won meal. A video posted by Aquatic Mammals depicts the orcas eating the prey.
But, “as the anglers tried to get closer to observe the killer whales feeding, the large male began vocalizing and charging directly at the anglers’ vessel,” the study said. As a result, the anglers left the area.
Biologists’ analysis
“Our report is the first to offer documented witness of sperm whale predation by killer whales in the western Caribbean Sea,” the study said.
Previously, there had been reports of orcas in the region attacking a number of other species, including pantropical spotted dolphins, Bryde’s whales and short-finned pilot whales — but predation had not been confirmed.
As supported by these reports, orcas in the Caribbean and other tropical waters are believed to be “generalist hunters,” unlike the specialist hunters found in colder waters.
Further, the observed orcas appeared to have taken part in a “cooperative hunting strategy,” which can be deployed to help them overpower larger prey.
However, researchers noted that, because the video does not depict the whale alive, they cannot rule out the possibility that the orcas scavenged it. This scenario, though, is unlikely.
They concluded, “this documented event of killer whale predation on a sperm whale in the Caribbean Sea serves as a critical addition to the existing knowledge of cetacean interactions within this region.”
