RESEARCHERS REPORT RARE ATTACK ON SPERM WHALES BY POD OF ORCAS.

Byline: Paula Story Associated Press 

A group of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently witnessed a rare attack that confirmed why whalers long ago gave killer whales their name.

Researchers on the ship David Starr Jordan saw a group of nine adult sperm whales brutally attacked by a pod of about 25 killer whales 60 miles off the Central California coast last month, the National Marine Fisheries Service said Thursday.

During the five-hour attack, one adult sperm whale was killed and eaten and several others were bloodied, officials said.

``In my career . . . never, in eight years of sea duty, have I seen anything like this,'' Lt. Cmdr. Tim Clancy said in a statement released Thursday.

The ship was on a research cruise Oct. 21, watching the behavior and social groupings of the sperm whales when the attack began.

``Although rarely witnessed, killer whales have been seen attacking small sperm whale calves, but never attacking and killing adults,'' said Susan Chivers of the NMFS' Southwest Fisheries Science Center and chief scientist on the cruise.

Chivers said the sperm whales went into a defensive posture that only had been reported by whalers long ago.

The sperm whales formed a rosette pattern - with their heads pointing inward in a hub - attempting to use their flukes as a defensive weapon. But in this case, Chivers said the act was not very effective. The killer whales repeatedly rushed the group, submerging to attack from beneath just before they hit.

Killer whales can swim up to 25 miles an hour, scientists said, while a sperm whales' top speed is only 6 miles an hour. Sperm whales, which have square heads and are generally blue-gray or black, can grow to about 60 feet long. Killer whales, often called orcas, are typically black and white or dark gray and grow to 30 feet.

Scientists with the fisheries science center said only six killer whale attacks on sperm whales have ever been officially recorded.

But scientists said killer whales indeed have killed nearly every other large whale, including the adult blue whale, which weighs about 100 tons.

Earlier last month, a clash between a killer whale and a great white shark was recorded off the San Francisco coast. A female killer whale attacked and killed the shark, then encouraged her calf to eat it. Marine biologists said that incident off the Farallon Islands also was unusual, because the ocean's two main predators typically avoid each other.