What do big white sharks fear? Deadly Orcs

If the films were scientifically accurate, here's how Jaws Panning: When the movie theme begins to play, a black dorsal fin glides around the surface of the water. Great white sharks escape from fear as the camera reveals the real threat: a killer whale.

Great white sharks and orcas overlap in their position in the food chain. They can appear in the same place and feed on the same prey. But when they interact, even a short visit to an orca can send huge sharks to rush for long periods, according to a new article published in Scientific Reports.

The ranges of Great white sharks and killer whales overlap in the northern Pacific, especially in the fall and early winter, when they meet at coastal sites for s & rsquo; Attack the seals. We have not done much study of direct interactions between these two predators, although killer whales sometimes attack sharks, probably to feed on their nutrient-rich livers, as we have already pointed out. As interspecific relationships are not limited to those who eat to whom, researchers have sought to understand the interactions between animals in these shared spaces.

The researchers drew great white sharks on their boat with a "seal lure made from outdoor rugs" and affixed electronic tags on 165 of them from 2006 to 2013 on three coastal sites California: Southeast Farallon Island, Tomales Point and Año Nuevo Island. They then collected data from various monitoring surveys of sharks, killer whales and elephants in Farallon Islands (southeast). Their analysis revealed that the closer the killer whales were to the islands, the less sharks were killed.

There were many examples of killer whales scarring sharks. On November 2, 2009, there were 17 tagged sharks in the waters around the islands. Killer whales showed up for just 2.5 hours and did not kill any tagged sharks, but scientists stopped detecting all but one shark in the waters for the remainder of the season. Similar shark exoduses took place in 2011 and 2013.

Although the study is based on estimates from survey data, it shows that large white sharks feeding around southeastern Farallon Islands feared visiting killer whales. According to the document, this is important because it shows a nuanced relationship between species that could have more frightening effects than sharks – this could have an impact on seal elephant populations, which would grow with fewer sharks.

If you remove an item from this study, it should be this: sharks are not as scary as orcas. I propose a director remake at once Jaws and Save Willy with that in mind.