Killer whales are wrecking shop on great white sharks near South Africa

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But now these monsters of the deep are locked in a deadly battle for survival off the coast of South Africa. The bodies of three great whites have washed up on beaches already during May. That in itself is rare, but what really shocked scientists was that their livers had been removed with “surgical precision”.

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Some pods specialise in hunting one particular species, mastering unique techniques to catch their deadly prey. Ingrid Visser, who was studied killer whales for nearly 20 years, said orcas used their powerful tails to create strong underwater currents that forced the sharks to the surface, then stunned them.

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“Once the shark is at the surface, the killer whale pivots and lifts its tail out of the water and comes down on top of it like a karate chop,” she said. The shark’s fatty liver can weight more than 60kg and is rich in organic chemicals that make it a perfect food source for killer whales. Alison Towner, a biologist from the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, said: “They work together and are very co-ordinated. "Two orcas take a pectoral fin in their mouth and pull open a shark together to extract the liver.”

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