Orcas in the Gulf of California have been observed ramming into the carcasses of sharptail sunfish, a technique that blows the fish into small pieces. The behaviour was captured on video in two separate events in 2024 and 2025, described in a study published in Frontiers in Ethology. In one encounter, a female orca held a dead sunfish by its tail fin while a male accelerated toward it; the female released the fish just before the male rammed it at high speed, causing the tissue to fragment.

Kathryn Ayres, an author of the study, said the ramming may serve to portion food for calves and juveniles. “We document how one orca holds the sunfish and lets go just before another orca hits it at high speed, causing the tissue to break apart into thousands of pieces,” she told The Independent. In both events, juvenile orcas consumed the small scraps created by the impact, while adults fed on the remaining carcass, according to the study.

Senior study author Erick Higuera, a marine biologist and cinematographer from the organisation Conexiones Terramar, hypothesised two interconnected purposes. The first is that ramming provides a practical way to access the fish’s internal organs, as sunfish have dense, rubbery outer layers that are difficult to tear by biting alone. “The fish is fully open, like when you are about to eat an empanada … and eat the inside and don't eat the outside,” Higuera told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The second involves social play and learning, as orcas are known to engage in object manipulation and may use the low-risk sunfish to practise strike precision and reinforce social bonds.

The observations are the first time orcas have been documented using ramming as a predation strategy, adding to a growing catalogue of behaviours in the Gulf of California. One local pod, led by a male called Moctezuma, specialises in hunting sharks and rays, the ABC reported. Ayres said researchers hope to collect further observations of such events involving sunfish to determine the exact significance of the behaviour in orca populations.