[Image: Instagram/Simon Hilbourne]
It’s not often you witness the ocean at its most primal, but that’s exactly what marine biologist and underwater photographer Simon Hilbourne captured when a pod of orcas took down a young humpback whale in a merciless hour-long assault.
Filmed during South Africa’s famed sardine run in June 2024, the footage is not for the faint-hearted.
“I witnessed one of the most raw and brutal events to happen in the ocean,” Hilbourne posted on Instagram. And he wasn’t exaggerating.
Hilbourne was on a boat about 10 miles off the coast of East London when he and his crew spotted a pod of five killer whales – Orcinus orca if we’re being fancy – heading north. At first, the orcas seemed to ignore the humpbacks nearby, but then they locked eyes on one unfortunate youngster.
Despite the humpback being bigger than any of the orcas – Hilbourne estimates it was about nine metres long – the pod moved in.
“They started to surround and harass it,” he explains, and from there, things got nasty.
What followed was a brutal display of coordinated carnage. “The orcas would bite onto the humpback’s pectoral fins,” Hilbourne says. “It was unclear if the humpback was then rolling to get the orcas off or if the orcas were rolling the humpback to try and drown it. They also rammed it, delivered body blows, and tried to ride on its back to submerge it.”
Cue the National Geographic horror soundtrack.
The takedown dragged on for over an hour. Blood eventually appeared in the water. After another 30 minutes, the young whale was dead.
But the brutality didn’t end there.
“At least one orca made a couple of entries into the humpback’s mouth to remove the tongue,” says Hilbourne. The rest of the body slipped beneath the surface.
“I can’t say they didn’t eat any more of the whale,” he adds, “but we only saw them eat the tongue.”
Ocean life: majestic, yes. But also absolutely savage.
[Source: Discover Wildlife]