Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen behavior in killer whales off the coast of Mexico: one orca holds a dead giant sunfish in its mouth while another orca rams into the fish at high speed, smashing it into thousands of pieces. The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Ethology and reported on July 23, 2026, by The Guardian, The New York Times, CNN, and Ars Technica.

Dr Kathryn Ayres, a scientist at the non-profit group Beneath The Waves, captured the first event on a GoPro camera in July 2024. A second event was recorded by a tourism operator in September 2025. Both took place in the Gulf of California The Guardian.

The fish being targeted is called the sharp-tail sunfish. It can grow to more than three metres long and weigh up to 2,000 kilograms. Orcas commonly hunt and eat sunfish. According to Ars Technica's reporting, the hunt begins with orcas biting at the fish's side fins, then slashing across its body to remove the internal organs Ars Technica.

The ramming follows a clear pattern. The first orca lets go of the sunfish, and then the second orca slams into it at speed, causing it to break apart, The New York Times reported. Once the fish was in pieces, a young orca started eating the floating bits The New York Times.

Erick Higuera, a marine biologist at the Mexican non-profit Conexiones Terramar, is a co-author of the study. The research offers two possible explanations, and both could be true at the same time. The first is practical: the sunfish has tough, rubbery skin that is hard for young orcas to tear into with their smaller jaws. Smashing it apart makes the meat accessible to them Smithsonian Magazine. The second explanation, as The Guardian reported, is that the ramming may simply be a form of play. The sunfish was already dead before the ramming happened The Guardian.

The broader context is that orcas are already known for having some of the most complex hunting strategies of any marine mammal. Different groups of orcas, called ecotypes, use different techniques that they learn from each other and pass down through generations within their family groups, known as pods. Think of it as cultural knowledge, similar to how humans pass down recipes or hunting methods. The ramming behavior adds a new cooperative trick to what scientists already knew about orcas. The fact that a young orca was seen eating the pieces supports the idea that the adults were breaking the fish apart to help it feed. But the play explanation cannot be ruled out, because orcas in many parts of the world are known to toss, drag, and manipulate prey as a form of social play.

Two sightings, more than a year apart and recorded by different people, suggest this is not a one-time accident. The Gulf of California is home to both orcas that stay year-round and others that pass through. Young orcas were present in both events, which raises the question of whether adults are teaching this behavior to the next generation.

There is a practical challenge behind this research as well. The first event was filmed by a scientist with a GoPro; the second by someone running a tourism trip. Footage from tourists and citizen scientists has become increasingly important in studying ocean wildlife, especially in places like the Gulf of California where research boats are scarce and orca sightings are hard to predict. But because these recordings happen by chance, scientists have very few examples to study, and their explanations are still early-stage.

What scientists cannot yet answer is whether the ramming is mainly about food, social bonding, or helping young orcas develop skills. All three could overlap. Breaking apart a fish together could feed a young orca and give it practice with motor skills at the same time, which would fit what researchers already know about how young marine mammals learn. To learn more, scientists would need to track individual orcas over time, ideally with tagging devices, to see whether this behavior is limited to certain pods or used more widely across the region.