Transient killer whales sometimes play with their food, but they’ve rarely been documented toting jellyfish, or sea jellies, in their mouths.
The accompanying images, captured Saturday by Monterey Bay Whale Watch, show two killer whales, or orcas, carrying what might be the same sea nettle at different times in California’s Monterey Bay.
The extraordinary sightings, from aboard the Point Sur Clipper, marked only the second time in the company’s long history that orcas have been documented exhibiting this type of behavior. (Bigg’s transient orcas prey almost exclusively on marine mammals.)
The sightings occurred after a mother orca and her three offspring had killed sea lions and at one point seemed to deliver a skinned carcass alongside the boat.
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“The CA202s, nicknamed the Smileys, hunted a couple of California Sea Lions and then celebrated afterwards!” Monterey Bay Whale Watch boasted on Facebook. “They came over to the boat several times, were bow riding, and one was even playing with this sea nettle! What an incredible experience for our passengers!”
The underwater images are screen shots from video footage captured by Tory Kallman (the video has not yet been made public). They show the youngest orca swimming behind a GoPro camera somewhat comically, with the sea nettle dangling from its chin.
“Right now the sea nettle is questioning every life choice that led it to think a selfie with an orca was a good idea,” a woman joked in the Facebook comments.
The third image, captured by Jodi Frediani, shows an older sibling with the sea nettle looking more like an orange ball.
It’s not known why the orcas carried the jelly or whether it was consumed. But it’s worth nothing that sea nettles’ tentacles contain stinging cells that paralyze their prey – mostly zooplankton, small fishes, larval fishes, and other jellies.
Capt. Nancy Black, owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch and co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project, told For The Win Outdoors that the orcas most likely were playing with the jelly “like a dog plays with a ball.”
Black added that the young killer whales possibly enjoyed the “tingling” sensation, generated by the tentacles, on their tongues.
The previous such sighting, an event also photographed by Kallman, was in 2009.