Despite the bloody picture painted in the film. JawsThe true king of the ocean is not the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). It’s the orca whale (Orcinus orca). These skilled hunters stalk their prey in a variety of ways, from hydroplaning over the sand to catch seals or corralling fish into large balls of bait for a snack.

A pod of orcas in the Gulf of California appears to have an extra tool in their hunting toolbox, and it was caught on camera. A whale holds the carcass of a large sunfish, which can measure more than 6 feet long and weigh more than 4,000 pounds. The whale then breaks free, before another killer whale charges at the sunfish carcass at high speed. The collision breaks the fish’s tissue into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Orca lunge-holding behavior

“At first, I was excited because I could see what they were eating and document it,” says Dr. Katy Ayres, a research scientist with Beneath The Waves and Orcas Mexico and a Latitude Adventures guide who captured the images. popular science. “Sometimes it is difficult to identify the prey. But I did not expect the sunfish to fragment into so many pieces. In the end it was clear that we were witnessing something special.”

The event is detailed in a study co-authored by Ayres and published today in the journal Frontiers in ethology.

Sunfish chunks everywhere

Sunfish are among the heaviest bony fish species on the planet. They move through several deeper parts of the oceans, but come to the surface to rest, regulate their body temperature, or find organisms that eat parasites on their skin. While those surface waters can be great for exfoliation, they make them more vulnerable to predators. In the Gulf of California, orcas often hunt and eat them.

“Overall, orcas here have an incredibly diverse diet. While some groups seem to specialize in certain prey, in general, they have been documented hunting everything from whales and dolphins to sharks, rays, sea turtles and, of course, the world’s largest bony fish, sunfish,” Ayres says. “They are still a relatively understudied population of orcas, so each new observation helps complete another piece of the puzzle.”

These new observations are based on two independent hunting events that occurred about a year apart. In July 2024, Ayres watched as a group of killer whales, including a juvenile, interacted with a dead sharptail sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus) that the group had previously killed. A female orca held the sunfish by the tail fin while a male orca sped up and swam toward them both. The female released him shortly before the male collided with him. The juvenile then ate the smaller pieces of sunfish that had exploded due to the impact, while the adults fed on what was left of the body, but did not consume the smaller sunfish fragments.

A similar event in September 2025 was filmed by Hector Franz and had the same grasping technique and feeding behavior.

a family meal

Charging like this has not previously been described as a method of predation by killer whales. Since the sunfish were already dead in both events, the ramming may be a processing technique rather than a way to deliver a killing blow.

“The most surprising part was how coordinated they were. One killer whale held the sunfish in exactly the right position and released it at the perfect moment for the other to hit it with incredible force,” Ayres says.

The gelatinous layer that covers the sunfish is called a capsule and its skin houses all kinds of different microorganisms. If this tissue breaks down, all the microbes it contains spread to the water and change the nutrient composition. The team believes that tissue fragmentation could facilitate contact between the sunfish and killer whale microbiomes. This coming together of the microbiomes could provide the orca with nutritional or other benefits, including immune regulation.

Lunging behavior may also be a form of parental investment. Dividing the carcass into more manageable pieces for younger whales aligns with previously observed behaviors.

“It was also really lovely to see the young orca taking advantage of the smaller pieces, which raises interesting questions about whether the adults were making the prey easier to eat,” Ayres recalls.

Playing with his food

While this could be a way to boost immunity and help feed their calves, lunging can simply be a fun game for these very sociable whales.

For sunfish, the interaction could provide new insights into their anatomy and other physical characteristics. So far, tissue fragmentation has only been documented in sharptail sunfish. This suggests that tissue disintegration may be a species-specific structural response to high-energy impacts. The tissue of larger sunfish species may not necessarily disintegrate in this way, but we will only know that in future studies.

It is also unclear whether the same orcas were involved in both events. More high-quality images that capture the killer whale’s dorsal fins and characteristic eye patches may help identify individuals.

“Seeing orcas here is a true privilege and a relatively rare experience. Although regulations are now in place, we are seeing an increase in boats searching for them in the hope of bringing people into the water and sometimes forcing encounters,” concludes Ayres. “I think it’s important for visitors to come with realistic expectations and appreciate these animals in their natural environment and not just as a photo opportunity or social media post.”

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