This Massive Killer Whale Was Injured... by a Shark!

[00:00:00]When we're looking at animals in the ocean, this is a place of hierarchies.

[00:00:03]Textbooks have led us to believe that at the very top of the marine food chain sits the orca, or killer whale, and they're not entirely wrong. These are apex predators so powerful and so intelligent that around the world they regularly hunt the most famous shark of all, the great white shark, and they hunt them just for their livers with ease. But in the cold, deep waters off the west coast of Scotland and the wider northeast Atlantic, there's a legendary killer whale named John Coe with a somewhat peculiar backstory. He's a very large individual and a member of the most endangered population of killer whales on the planet. For over half a century, John Coe has been regarded as a British icon in the marine mammal world, a true symbol of power and resilience.

[00:00:42]But in 2015, researchers off the west coast, after photographing him, noticed something a little bit strange. That right there is a bite mark, and a big one at that. And it's not from another orca or a boat propeller. That, on the face of it, is the unmistakable calling card of a large predatory shark. Yep, a shark was brave enough to bite a killer whale. This bizarre turn of events sent ripples through the scientific community when we began discovering that orca in certain parts of the world utterly dominate sharks. Although this specific incident here is a little bit tricky to get your head around, because how is it that a fish who usually flees at the mere sound or scent of an orca has managed to take a chunk [music] out of the supposed master of the ocean.

[00:01:22]Was it some kind of desperate act of [music] self-defense, or is there a predator prowling off the coast of the UK that we have seriously underestimated? Today then, we're going full detective mode on this wild case study. We'll have a look at the victim, the scene of the crime, and the most likely suspects. Welcome back to another Shark Bites episode, everyone. Now, before we get into our little whodunit today, we first need to understand exactly who it was that was hit, because John Coe isn't just any ordinary old killer whale. He's a very special member of the west coast community. Most of the orca that you might be lucky enough to see in the UK are transient visitors, likely part of the Northern Isles community that travels between Iceland, Norway, and Scotland to hunt herring or seals. But, the west coast community is different. They're the UK's only true resident pod, and biologically, these guys are fascinating. They're significantly larger than the transient orcas, nearly a meter longer on average, and they've got a different eye patch orientation, as well as different tooth wear patterns, too. But, here's the sad part. The west coast community of killer whales is often referred to as a ghost pod because as of the latest scientific surveys, tragically, there are only [music] two individuals left, John Coe and Aquarius, just two males. No females have been seen with them in years, and no calves have been born to this group in over 25 years. It's widely believed now that because of high PCB pollution levels in the 20th century, that this west coast community became infertile, with one individual in the pod nicknamed Lulu stranding in 2016 [music] having had PCB concentrations in her blubber 80 times higher than the accepted PCB toxicity threshold for marine mammals. So, the west coast community are essentially a living extinction, and it's simply only a matter of time now until they disappear forever because when John Coe and Aquarius die, this unique genetic lineage dies with them. [music] As it stands though, they're still alive and kicking with a very recent and rare sighting of them in Cornwall, where I live, much to the excitement of everyone. Now, John Coe is pretty easily identified by the massive notch in his dorsal fin, and he's officially been tracked since 1992, although he's likely a lot older than that, perhaps in his 60s or 70s. He's undoubtedly a true veteran of the sea. So, when a killer whale [music] of this size and experience showed up with a relatively fresh, raw wound on his tail fluke, [music] the scientific community was bound to take notice. The bite itself is located on the fluke, the powerhouse part of the body for an orca. It's a semi-circular notch at least several inches deep, showing clear signs of damage that would be consistent with a shark bite. Now, while we don't know the exact width of John Coe's tail fluke, considering he's one of the larger ecotypes, the entire width of that fluke could be upwards of 2 and 1/2 m, that's 8 ft. And if we halve that, because we're looking at just one side of the divide, you could say that that width there is about 4 ft. So, the bike could perhaps be a foot or more wide. And that is a decent-sized animal. Another major clue that this wound was inflicted by a shark species, though, is the location of that bite on the body. In the shark world, the tail of any animal, killer whale included, is the blind spot. If you're a smaller predator trying to disable a larger one, you go for the part where you can't be seen, and the part that will do the most damage to that animal. An example that I can think of off the top of my head would be the white shark that actively predated on a live humpback whale in South Africa, which was the first ever documentation of this behavior in the wild. And their strategy to take it down? Bite the tail.

[00:04:33]But with that example there, I do think there's a bit of a difference between an injured humpback whale and a fully grown adult male killer whale. So, what shark in the British Isles and beyond has the balls to try and take down Jonko? Our first suspects, then, are perhaps some of the more usual suspects for the Atlantic Ocean. The porbeagle shark is undoubtedly a local. These sharks are powerful cold-water specialists, but while adults of this species are built quite stockily, their teeth are more dagger-like, evolved for grasping fish as opposed to ripping chunks out of marine mammals. But because of their relatively small teeth compared to other sharks, a bite from a porbeagle would look more like a small cluster of puncture wounds, not a clean missing piece of flesh. Then we've got the white shark. Now, while the bite radius might look a bit similar to a white shark, there's a pretty big problem here, which is that we have no confirmed sightings of this species in the entirety of the UK. Importantly there, I say confirmed sightings, as it doesn't mean that they're not here, it just makes it more unlikely than others. I do somewhat think the fit of a white shark might be there, but the presence isn't. Could a wandering white shark have done it?

[00:05:35]Maybe, but I think if we want to follow the evidence to the most likely biological culprit, we have to look at the shark species that we know are here.

[00:05:43]And to solve this mystery, we might have to look down, deep down. Off the coast of Scotland in the western section of the UK and Ireland, the continental shelf drops off into the abyss, and we go into the realm of some of our deep water predators, bluntnose sixgill and the Greenland shark. These are massive, sluggish predators that can reach estimated lengths of 15 to 20 ft long.

[00:06:03]That's a big predator. But right now, you might be thinking to yourselves, how does a slow-moving deep water shark species catch a killer whale? And the answer to that is that they don't, at least not while the killer whale is moving at full speed. The west coast community killer whales are known to dive deep, and they're known to actively target larger cetacean species like minke whales. Sometimes before those whales can be entirely consumed at the surface, they'll sink to the bottom, becoming a whale fall. So, if Jon Coe was feeding on a minke whale fall at the bottom of the ocean, he likely wouldn't be the only one at the dinner table. The smell of decaying blubber in the deep ocean is like a dinner bell for these large deep sea sharks, drawing them in from miles away. And if Jon Coe was distracted enough by his meal, a 15-to-20-ft sixgill or Greenland shark could have easily had a pop at his tail fluke, perhaps thinking it was part of the whale fall. I think it's a pretty compelling theory, but the teeth of both of these shark species don't quite fit the bill. Because these two deep sea shark species have very specialized lower teeth. The sixgill has saw-like teeth, and the Greenland shark has a very distinct rotational bite that ends up looking quite circular or bowl-shaped. They tend to grab hold of the flesh and roll their entire bodies to carve out a perfect circular plug, kind of like a cookie-cutter bite, but bigger. And based on the shape of their mouths, it's hard to argue against this.

[00:07:16]So, even though the crime scene might fit here, that could place these two species in relative close proximity to each other, but the bite evidence doesn't quite match up. But there's one more suspect that fits the profile even better. When biologists first looked at Jon Coe's injuries, the shortfin mako was the species that kept on cropping up, and for good reason. There's a fairly common misconception here that makos only have needle-like [music] teeth for catching small fish. And while these teeth are indeed long and curved for snaring and snagging prey, the mechanics of their jaw are evolved for total destruction. Mako sharks are famous for their ripping ability when they bite down on larger prey. Unlike many other sharks that simply hold on and thrash around, a mako's jaw can move with such force that it literally rips large chunks of flesh entirely off that prey. This shark reportedly has one of the strongest recorded bites in the animal kingdom, measuring at around 3,000 lbs of force. And we see the effect of that bite force on marine animals like swordfish who regularly have large sections of flesh entirely ripped from their bodies by these sharks. But we also even have documentation of them performing the very same biting behavior on marine mammals, too. This footage taken by Takayuki Ogawa and used in a 2024 research paper shows a shortfin mako stalking a porpoise that has had its entire tail fluke excavated from the rest of its body. And while it's still only circumstantial evidence in this video, it does start to build a case here that these sharks are capable of causing serious damage to [music] the tails of marine species, including cetaceans. On top of this incredible bite force, mako sharks are considered to be the fighters of the shark world.

[00:08:48]They're the fastest shark in the ocean, hitting speeds of upwards of 45 mph, and they can be particularly aggressive around prey sources and are well-known for testing animals bigger than themselves. Coincidentally, in 2014 and 2015, just before this injury was recorded on Junko, there was an uptick in shortfin mako sightings further north than usual in this part of the world due to shifting warm water currents, which I think is just another finger pointing towards this shark species. In my opinion, with this shark, you've got to think about the speed. A mako shark is likely one of the only creatures in the ocean that could outpace or outmaneuver an orca. This shark species easily could have initiated a hit-and-run attack, sprinting in at high speed, taking a powerful test bite out of the tail fluke, and retreating at 40 mph before Junko could even register what happened.

[00:09:35]That clean, ripped-out nature of that chunk and the mechanical removal of tissue is a hallmark of a mako's high-speed and high-pressure bite. John Coe, the killer whale, of course, survived the encounter, of which the same can't be said with 100% certainty for the shark who bit him. Today, that bite mark is healed into a permanent jagged notch, a scar that adds to his already legendary profile and helps people identify him as he cruises along the west coast of Britain. In terms of my final verdict, while I do quite like the deep-sea scavenger theory and it's a fascinating possibility, the leading scientific consensus undoubtedly points towards the shortfin mako. It's unique combination of extreme speed, territorial aggression, and a jaw capable of ripping out solid chunks of flesh, it makes it the perfect hit-and-run suspect in this case study.

[00:10:21]I guess it kind of serves as a reminder to us that no matter how high you are on the food chain, the ocean and sharks always have a trick up their sleeves.

[00:10:28]Even for an apex predator like John Coe, there's always something faster, hungrier, or more desperate waiting in the blue. What do you guys think, man?

[00:10:36]Was it a mako hit-and-run? Was it a deep-sea shark? Or is this the proof we needed of white sharks in British waters? I want to hear all your thoughts in the comments. Before you all dash off though, if you enjoyed today's mako mystery, then you might quite like this video here. In it, we look at the strange occurrence of a genetic hybrid white shark that ended up thousands of miles from where it was supposed to be.

[00:10:55]It's a bizarre but super interesting story. So, if you want to find out more, make sure you give this video a click.