Watch: Orcas ram into fish so hard they explode
Scientists have released this extraordinary footage of orcas ramming into sunfish and smashing them into tiny fragments.
The two videos were filmed in 2025 off the coast of Mexico, but were published on Thursday in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ethology.
In both events, captured by divers just metres away, one orca holds a dead fish while another swims at it full speed, smashing into it with such force it explodes.
The researchers said these marine predators might be doing this for several reasons - perhaps breaking the fish apart to making it easier for the group to share.
"Sunfish are unusual prey: large and oddly shaped, and covered in thick, tough, sharp skin. Ramming and opening them as such may provide safer, more efficient access to the nutrients inside," said Austin Gallagher, one of the authors.
But the scientists - from non-profit organisation Beneath The Waves and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology - also pointed out that this could represent "play behaviour". The orcas could be smashing up the dead sunfish just for fun.
