Orcas filmed smashing dead sunfish in the Gulf of California

Researchers have documented orcas in the Gulf of California working together to ram a dead sunfish and break it apart. The behaviour was observed in footage collected in July 2024 and again in September 2025, and is described in a new study published this week in Frontiers in Ethology. Scientists say the whales may be using the tactic to make food easier for younger orcas to eat, or it may simply be play. In the videos, one orca holds the fish’s tail area in its mouth and releases it just before another whale strikes, causing the fish to break into pieces. The young whales appeared to eat most of the smaller pieces, while adults fed on what remained of the larger parts. Researchers said the fish involved were sharptail sunfish, a species that can grow to about three metres long and weigh as much as two tonnes. They noted that the animals were already dead before the ramming began, and that this kind of breakup had not been seen in other sunfish species under similar impacts.