News

Photographer Shawn Heinrichs recently captured a battle between sperm whales and orcas off the coast of Sri Lanka. The resulting photographs and film footage are the first of their kind to capture an orca and sperm whale skirmish underwater.

“There was a frothing, dark pile of shapes ahead of me,” said Heinrichs. “When I drifted away from the boat, the largest orca in the pod made a beeline for me but veered off at the last moment and dove deep.”

The attack lasted about 30 minutes with the orcas slamming repeatedly into the sperm whale pod and attempting to bite them. Towards the end they appeared to have separated a young sperm whale, possibly killing and eating it.

See photographs and a video here.