Killer whale beaches
The breathtaking view of nature happened earlier this month on a mostly abandoned beach in Patagonia, Argentina.
The killer whale, with a companion in the ocean behind it, managed to beach itself in order to get at the unfortunate sea lion. While other sea lions further up on the beach looked on, the resourceful whale kept moving into the shallow water until the top section of its body was actually up upon the beach itself.
Witnesses said the unsuspecting sea lion had little or no chance to move itself further up onto the beach as the whale appeared quickly and was even quicker to grab dinner into its mouth.
The killer whale, also known as an orca, then squiggled backwards and once in deep enough water, turned and was last seen swimming off with its hapless dinner alive and between its massive teeth. It is hard to say if it was a male or female whale but witnesses described it as large; male ocras are in general larger than females.
Seal escapes whales
This was an instance of a whale being resourceful in catching a sea lion, or seal, but there are instances on record when it is the seal that does the quick thinking and manages to escape the clutches of a hungry whale. This is an excerpt from a Digital Journal story on just such an event last August:
It happened Friday afternoon in beautiful Desolation Sound at the north end of B.C.’s Sunshine Coast when two transient pods of orcas were in the sound on business — looking for lunch. Seal is a welcome part of the diet of many species of whales and there was at least one seal in the area.
Naturally, that seal did not relish the thought of getting eaten alive and, in desperation, when it spotted a small boat it jumped up and right into it. But there was a fisherman in the boat and witnesses said he gunned the motor, sending the hapless seal back into the ocean.
But the seal didn’t give up, after all the stakes were rather high. It saw a small Zodiac, a dinghy, belonging to Michelle and Ryan Wigmore, which they were towing behind their yacht, and swam over to it.
The Wigmores had been watching a dozen or so whales on a hunt for food and saw the harbour seal get turfed by the fisherman. They then saw it swim over to their empty dinghy – and jump in.
On that occasion, the quick-thinking seal stayed in the dingy for a lengthy period of time until the killer whales gave up and moved out of Desolation Sound to look for their dinner elsewhere. In fact those owners of the dingy it took refuge in, the Wigmores, said it even appeared to have taken a nap while in there.
It is rare for a whale to beach in order to catch a prey.