This story was first published on Monday July 30.
In the waters off South Africa, a struggle for power is raging between two apex predators - orcas and great white sharks.
Great white sharks began washing ashore soon after two male orcas moved into the fishing town of Gaansbaai, a popular tourist destination in Overberg District Municipality, in the Western Cape, Nine News reports.
"We think possibly what they're doing is taking a pectoral fin of the white shark in each mouth and swimming," marine biologist Dr Alison Towner said.
"And then they’re opening up the shark and extracting its liver that way and what’s incredible is the surgical precision that they do this with."
Dr Towner and her colleagues are currently investigating the "complex dynamic factors" which are leading the pair of orcas to encroach on a coastline typically inhabited by great whites.
Gaansbai is typically a hotspot for tourists wishing to cage dive with the predators but they have since fled, leaving only blue sharks in the area.
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