Massive sea creatures hunting prey put on show for onlookers off CA, photos show
.jpg "Whale watchers were excited to witness the older orcas teaching the younger orcas to hunt.")
A pod of 10 killer whales graced the water next to a group of whale watchers off California.
Throughout the day on Aug. 24, they kept appearing. And the animals put on quite a show.
“What an absolutely spectacular day we had yesterday,” Monterey Bay Whale Watch said in an Aug. 25 post on Facebook recounting the sightings. “We received a report of killer whales in the middle of the bay and were lucky enough to spend hours with them between all of our trips!”
The killer whales lived up to their brutal name that sunny day, catching sea birds in their toothy jaws as captivated boaters looked on. Photos shared by Monterey Bay Whale Watch show the black and white creatures huddled together, jumping out of the water, and feeding with feathers protruding from their mouths.
It was a bad day to be a bird.
The whale watchers think they may have witnessed an intergenerational hunting lesson.
“Many of the adult whales were showing the young whales how to do different maneuvers,” MBWW said.
The killer whale, or orca as it is often called, is the ocean’s “top predator,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It is considered a dolphin.
Killer whales are highly social and live in pods, like the one spotted on Aug. 24. They are known to use a coordinated hunting strategy, working as a team to catch their prey.
This story was originally published August 26, 2024 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Massive sea creatures hunting prey put on show for onlookers off CA, photos show."