{"id":1184819,"date":"2023-03-07T16:10:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/nearly-two-dozen-sharks-found-dead-after-two-killer-whales-surgical-feeding-frenzy-2\/1184819\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T16:10:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:10:04","slug":"nearly-two-dozen-sharks-found-dead-after-two-killer-whales-surgical-feeding-frenzy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/nearly-two-dozen-sharks-found-dead-after-two-killer-whales-surgical-feeding-frenzy-2\/1184819\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly two dozen sharks found dead after two killer whales’ ‘surgical’ feeding frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A surgical feeding frenzy off the African coast by a pair of killer whales has left at least 20 sharks dead, scientist say.<\/p>\n

The discovery came after 20 disemboweled sharks washed up on a South African beach putting the spotlight on two shark-hunting orcas whose behavior is being documented by researchers.<\/p>\n

The whales killed at least 17 of the sharks “in one sitting,” Marine Dynamics Academy<\/a> reported on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Marine biologists said they were alerted to the find by beach goers who last week stumbled upon the carcasses in Gansbaai, a fishing port just over 100 miles southeast of Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Port and Starboard<\/h2>\n

All evidence points to “Port” and “Starboard,” an infamous pair of killer whales spotted off Gansbaai only three days earlier.<\/p>\n

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The pair, known to prey on several species of sharks in the area, were tracked by a team of scientists on board Marine Dynamics Academy’s vessel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe observed the two orcas repeatedly diving down in a small area for almost two hours before they departed offshore,\u201d said Ralph Watson.<\/p>\n

The following Tuesday, eleven dead broadnose sevengill shark carcasses were discovered, he said.<\/p>\n

Necropsy findings<\/h2>\n

Alison Towne<\/a>r, a PhD candidate at Rhodes University leads the research on killer whales preying on sharks in Gansbaai and helped perform necropsies on the sharks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cEach seven-gill shark was torn open and missing its liver; they were all females measuring between 1.6-2.3 meters,” said Towner, also with the Dyer Island Conservation Trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Storm and surge conditions early in the week provided good conditions to push the shark carcasses on shore, the organization posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

“This is the largest amount of sharks these orcas have killed in this area in one sitting,” Towner said last week<\/a> after 17 of the shark’s bodies washed ashore.<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Orca pods can grow as big as 30<\/h2>\n

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium<\/a>, orcas live in tight-knit family groups, or pods, of two to 30 individuals. The pod moves from place to place as food sources change with the seasons<\/p>\n

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter <\/em>@nataliealund<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: <\/em>At least 20 sharks killed by 2 killer whales’ feeding frenzy<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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A surgical feeding frenzy off the African coast by a pair of killer whales has left at least 20 sharks dead, scientist say. The discovery…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1184819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}