It was a rough day for gray whales.
Insane video footage is going viral of a group of orca whales attacking two adult gray whales off the coast of Monterey Bay, California.
The drone footage was captured by Evan Brodsky who was at sea with Monterey Bay Whale Watch.
In the video, you can see more than 30 orcas attacking the two gray whales in brutal fashion. At first, they circled the two whales before jumping in for the attempted kill.
This is a pretty rare sight, considering the two gray whales are adults, and orcas typically go after calves that are more vulnerable than adults.
Brodsky wrote to Facebook:
“Over five hours of an attack by over two dozen Bigg’s killer whales on two adult gray whales, and an attempted predation – which was unsuccessful!
Usually killer whales will hunt gray whale calves as they head up to their northern feeding areas with their moms.
But these were not calves: they were huge adult gray whales! The battered gray whales eventually made it to shallow water, and the orcas broke off.
In over 30 years of documenting killer whales encounters by this is the FIRST time that such an attack has been documented on adult gray whales in Monterey Bay!”
Orcas, which are also known as “killer whales,” reside in the Pacific Northwest and typically go after other marine mammals, but normally not other whales.
Monterey Bay Whale Watch added:
“On March 30th, 2023 we witnessed several families of orcas attempting to predated on two adult grey whales.
Killer whales are typically observed predating on grey whale calves during the months of April and May as they’re make their annual migration back up to the Chukchi Sea of Alaska.
The orcas were observed for 6 hours by several boats before giving up and letting the grey whales escape into shallow waters.”
Insane…
