Ohmyfuckinggawd. Greatest moment of my adult life. Just watched the 1997 footage of the epic battle between a freaking ORCA and GREAT WHITE SHARK off the coast of Los Angeles.
Holy shit.
I might have just came. This is so cool!! For those of you who don’t know, I’m a shark enthusiast (so much so that I don’t see the sun for the entire week that is Shark Week…). In particular, I adore great whites and bull sharks. I mean seriously, just awe-inspiring. They are so powerful and terrifying- I love it. 8D But this, this is just ridiculous.
To what am I referring? The phenomenon of tonic immobility. I just watched a special on NatGeo about this, and damn is it cool. Apparently, if you turn a shark on its back, it will go into a hyper-panic mode. Now, as I’m sure you can imagine, this is bad, kind of the disorienting equivalent of drowning. Basically, you don’t want to panic. So, the shark’s body will secrete excesses of serotonin, which flood the brain and basically knocks the gigantic killing machine out solid for up to fifteen minutes. And when I say knocked out, I mean knocked out. The shark can’t even right itself if released, and surgery can be performed without anesthesia. Incredible. The only thing that will wake the shark up? The smell of another dead shark. And when the shark wakes back up, not only is it instantaneous, but it’s PISSED.
This is just unbelievable to me. The world’s oldest and greatest predator, defeated by a belly-rub. And that’s exactly how Shamu took down Jaws. Pathetic really. Literally, the orca rammed the unsuspecting great white, stunning it briefly before flipping the ferocious creature on its back. And then –BOOM- it’s out. Fifteen or so minutes later and the orca is licking its chops on some fresh sushi. Talk about fine-dining.
BTW, this is why NatGeo is AWESOME.
To re-establish the great white as the single most epic killer on the face of the planet, here’s a lovely clip for y’all:
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