It’s A Cruel, Cruel World–Especially If You Are A Gray Whale Calf: Monterey Bay is a beautiful, undulating body of water. It also features a deep-water canyon which gray whales migrating from Baja to Alaska must cross on their annual pilgrimage. This is a geographic note that seems to have become well understood by the ever crafty Orca, or killer whale. The result is that Monterey Bay is transformed every Spring into “Ambush Alley,” a grisly tableau in which normally uplifting, heartwarming whale-watching is turned into a brutal and grisly battle, for life and death, on the open ocean. Here, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is the scene that Mother Nature recently served up to a boatload of surprised whale watchers, as a pack of six killer whales attacked an 8-ton gray whale calf and its mother:

“As whale watchers looked on with a mixture of awe and sadness, mother killer whales — the most experienced hunters — took turns ramming head- first, like 6-ton torpedoes, into the calf’s soft underbelly, their force nearly knocking it out of the water, while others leapt atop the 20-foot baby, trying to drown it.

“It’s the greatest predation event on Earth,” said Richard Ternullo, a killer whale researcher and co-owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, who witnessed the battle during one of the company’s daily whale watching tours. “It’s 100 tons of whales crashing together.”

The battle lasted two and a half hours, and the excited squeals of the killer whales eventually drew in a total of 17 Orcas. But they were battling one tough Momma gray whale. Fighting valiantly to protect her calf she eventually led the bruised and bleeding baby into shallow water, where the Orcas would not venture. Fifteen other calves haven’t been so lucky. But read the whole article. It’s full of amazing information about the intelligence and adaptability of California’s killer whales. There must be a movie in here somewhere…



Orca vs. Gray Whale Smack-Down: It’s not looking good for the kid, who’s trying to find safety on his mother’s back…