Orca group seen hunting ocean's largest predators: researchers

Scientists at the University of British Columbia say they have identified a potentially new population of killer whales that hunt the planet’s largest predators in the open ocean.

A group of 49 orcas has been seen hunting sperm whales, elephant seals, dolphins and even a leatherback turtle as far as 300 kilometres off the coast of California and Oregon, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Aquatic Mammals last week.

And it seems the killer whales haven’t been studied before, according to co-author Andrew Trites, a professor at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. 

“It appears that these are a unique group of killer whales,”