Believe it or not, Jaws has something to fear

Jaws is afraid of Free Willy.

A new study published in Nature This week showed that when groups of orcas entered an area around South Farallon Island, off the coast of San Francisco, great white sharks evaporated and have not returned for months .

In the public's imagination, no ocean predator is more formidable than the great white shark, but even these seem to stay away from orcs, extremely intelligent pack hunters who have been observed at rare opportunities to attack the great whites and eat their liver.

"Once, we had 17 sharks that we were simultaneously tracking on the island when a group of killer whales arrived," said Salvador Jorgensen, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, who said led the study involving Stanford University and Blue Point Conservation Science.

"We could see in the data all the sharks leaving the side of the island where the orcs had arrived," he said, "and in a few hours he had completely left the island. "

The results are the result of 27 years of research, but Jorgensen suspected the two predators have been doing this dance for a while.

Scientists tagged 165 great white sharks between 2006 and 2013, drawing them on boats with seal lures made from everyday carpets before affixing them with tags that sent codes to the sensors throughout their territory. In this way, scientists could follow their movements. Blue Point Conservation Science has studied the activity of orcas in the southeast of Farallon Island, helping the team understand the interactions between orcas and sharks.

"There is some irony in the fact that one of the main strengths of this predator is his ability to know when to lie down and run," said Jorgensen about sharks. "We do not always think that a white shark decides to run away, but it can be an essential aspect of his behavior that could have led to success for many millions of years. "

The real winner of this ecological dance of predators could however be the prey. Great white sharks gather around southeastern Farallon Island when the population of elephant elephant juveniles is abundant and may overlap with that of killer whales in late autumn or early October. early winter. Although killer whales travel only briefly, great white sharks leave the area for a long time, leaving the seal population at peace.