Feeding frenzy! Extraordinary moment pod of killer whales kill and eat a humpback and its calf - just metres from a fishing boat

  • A dozen killer whales were seen eating carcasses of a humpback and a calf
  • Crayfisherman saw the killer whales 'tearing strips' from the baby whale 
  • The 10-metre humpback and its child are believed to have been drowned  
  • The vulnerable pair were migrating south after the calf's birth up north 

By Ollie Gillman For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

A pod of killer whales have killed and eaten a humpback and its calf, just metres from startled fishermen who captured the extraordinary moment on camera.

The incredible footage shows at least a dozen killer whales swarming around the carcasses of the huge animals as their blood and blubber spill into the water.

Crayfisherman Kevin Ostel took the remarkable video as he was sailing off the coast of Lancelin, north of Perth, in Western Australia.

A pod of killer whales have killed and eaten a humpback and its calf, just metres from startled fishermen who captured the extraordinary moment on camera

A pod of killer whales have killed and eaten a humpback and its calf, just metres from startled fishermen who captured the extraordinary moment on camera

The incredible footage shows at least a dozen killer whales swarming around the carcasses of the huge animals as their blood and blubber spill into the water

The incredible footage shows at least a dozen killer whales swarming around the carcasses of the huge animals as their blood and blubber spill into the water

The 10-metre long humpback and its young offspring are believed to have been drowned by the killer whales before tearing them apart.

Mr Ostel and his crew spotted a 'commotion' in the water before realising the disturbance was more than a dozen killer whales toying with two carcasses.

'It must have just happened then that they killed the humpbacks as there was blood in the water,' the fisherman told Daily Mail Australia. 

'They hold the humpbacks underwater and drown them, so sooner or later they die or drown and then they just mow into them. 

'They were just tearing strips off this poor whale.'

Mr Ostel said there were about a dozen killer whales near the boat, with a total of 30 swimming just out of shot.

Cray fisherman Kevin Ostel took the remarkable video as he was sailing off the coast of Lancelin, Western Australia

Cray fisherman Kevin Ostel took the remarkable video as he was sailing off the coast of Lancelin, Western Australia

The 10-metre long humpback and its young offspring are believed to have been drowned by the killer whales (pictured) before tearing them apart

The 10-metre long humpback and its young offspring are believed to have been drowned by the killer whales (pictured) before tearing them apart

Mr Ostel and his crew spotted a 'commotion' in the water before realising the disturbance was more than a dozen killer whales toying with two carcasses

Mr Ostel and his crew spotted a 'commotion' in the water before realising the disturbance was more than a dozen killer whales toying with two carcasses

Mr Ostel said there were about a dozen killer whales near the boat, with a total of 30 swimming just out of shot

Mr Ostel said there were about a dozen killer whales near the boat, with a total of 30 swimming just out of shot

'After seeing us, they let the whale carcass drift down in the water. But as I drove away they brought it back up,' Mr Ostel said. 

'I think it was a mother humpback and her calf. One thing that we've seen is these whales going up the coast to give birth in warmer waters before coming back down. Parents with a baby calf are very vulnerable.

'Sometimes you see the mothers take their babies into the shallow waters. I'm presuming they know when there are predators around and they try to protect them that way.'

The cray fisherman said he has only seen killer whales three times in his 35 years on the seas, but that this pod seemed unusually sociable. 

'They were acting like dolphins and were happy for us to be there,' he said.

'They were coming towards the boat and happily going around it.'

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