Orca Hunt Seven Gill Sharks | Orca vs. Great White

[Music] Ingrid Visser and Ken Iscolet are looking for evidence that orcas are hunting great white sharks in New Zealand waters. Ingrid has evidence that there's a disturbing pattern in orca hunting. New Zealand orcas are hunting sevengill sharks, just like the South African orca. Sevengill sharks grow to nine feet long and 200 pounds, a much larger meal for an orca than a small ray.

But the sevengill shark is no easy prey. Sevengills are relatively new on the orca menu, but I've seen it a few times now. You see the orca, and they're very, very precise in how they do it. I've got footage of orcas with the sevengills where they've ripped the pectoral fin right under the pectoral girdle there, and they've extracted the liver.

[Music] One of the things I find fascinating is how the sevengills will actually turn and defend themselves against the orca. The way the orca hunt the sevengills is pretty impressive. First of all, they'll come in and they'll karate chop the sharks. So they'll just come and lift their tail up and whack them on the back. Then they grab the sharks by the pectoral fin and rip them open and pull the livers out.

Ingrid captured rare footage of orcas hunting sevengills in northern New Zealand. Their precision in hunting for shark liver is clear. [Music] You