THIS is the gruesome moment a pod of killer orcas tear a whale shark apart before feasting on its liver in front of stunned divers.
The horrific footage was filmed off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.
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In the video, captured by James Moskito, CEO of the California-based ocean tour operator Ocean Safaris, the deadly orca can be seen swimming upside down beneath the shark.
The orca then takes a swipe at the oblivious shark before chomping down into its underside in a brutal attack.
Blood can be seen spewing from the grisly wound as the orca finishes its feast and heads towards the surface - leaving the whale shark's corpse sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
James had noticed the whale shark and recalled swimming towards it until he was six-feet above, he told Live Science.
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"The killer whales start coming in and next I know they're biting the bottom of it," he said.
James' footage appears to be the first of its kind as orca's have rarely been captured attacking whale sharks which are known to reach lengths of up to 27ft.
The cameraman said the whole attack was over in a matter of seconds after he witnessed the orca "slurping" the sharks liver, leaving it lifeless.
But just moments after the horror killing, James told how he watched the pod of vicious orcas attack another whale shark in a different area.
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He said when they arrived at the location, they saw the whale shark "just thrashing at the surface with a killer whale attached to it."
The infamous male orca. known as Montezuma, was part of the pod that made the twin attacks, said James.
"He was not with his normal pod. He was kind of the instigator of the stuff, even though in the video it's a female biting it [the whale shark], not the male."
Orcas tend to go for shark livers as they are highly nutritious and packed with fats and oils .
Alison Kock, a marine biologist with South African National Parks, told Live Science that "Sharks' livers are large and buoyant, and they float to the surface of the water when a shark is killed".
This means that they are an easy meal for killer orcas to spot and access in comparison to other organs that may sink straight to the bottom.
This deadly attack comes after autopsies that were carried out on six deadly killer whales whose bodies washed up on beaches in South Africa in 2020 revealed that they had been "ripping open" great white sharks and eating their livers, hearts and testicles.
Marine biologist Alison Towner said the orcas tore the the sharks' skins just below the throat to get to the internal organs.
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