According to their results recently published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, the culprit is clear: a killer whale fatally assaulted the over-15-foot-long shark, then proceeded to devour its innards. While it most likely zeroed-in on the nutrient-rich liver, multiple scavengers also got in on the meal.

Recent findings used wildlife forensics and citizen science data to provide the first confirmed evidence of killer whale predation on white sharks in Australia.

Footage captured in May 2022 shows an aerial view of killer whales hunting and killing great white sharks at Mossel Bay, South Africa.

Based on DNA analysis from the bite wounds on the carcass of a large white shark washed ashore near Portland in Victoria in 2023, the Flinders University-led study identified that killer whales were responsible for consuming the mid-section containing the nutritionally rich liver.

Great white sharks are washing up dead on beaches with enlarged brains in what is becoming a spiralling marine mystery.

In more than 30 years of monitoring, Canadian wildlife agencies never found a single dead great white shark. Then, in the course of a year, five washed up – and nobody knows why. The Canadian sharks join four previously found dead in US waters – all under similarly perplexing circumstances.