Watch: Orcas ram into fish so hard they explode
Scientists have released this extraordinary footage of orcas ramming into sharptail 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 say these marine predators might be doing this for several reasons - perhaps breaking the fish apart to making it easier for the group to share. So, they could be working together to "process" their food in some way.
But the scientists - from non-profit organisation Beneath The Waves and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology - also point out that this could represent "play behaviour". The orcas could be smashing up the dead sunfish just for fun.
