back to article Whale versus shark in KIWI DEATH MATCH!

New Zealand residents were treated to a spectacular event just before New Year, when a beachside encounter between orcas and sharks turned into a surf-churning blood-in-the-water battle worthy of a cheesy horror flick. The bloody battle, captured on video by local residents, took place at Blue Cliffs Beach in Tuatapere in New …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. ainsley
    Holmes

    I am puzzled about the slow news in Australia, how does that relate to the article?

    Is it a slow news day in Spain as well?

    1. Charles Manning

      Slow news day in Moscow, more like.

      NZ to Oz is about the same distance as RegHQ (London) to Moscow, Mexico to Canada, or - for GW Bush - Kabul to Baghdad.

      1. mr.K
        Coat

        Get over it

        It is pretty much the same place, get over it. Let us review the facts we know about areas. For the first contender we have:

        Name: New Zealand

        Type: Island

        Location: Down to the right

        And for the other one we have:

        Name: Australia

        Type: Island

        Location: Down to the right

        Yes, that is my hat and coat. Why do you a..oh, you want me to take it and leave, got it

        1. downunder
          FAIL

          Get over it...

          Close, but no cigar. Australia, type=continent... It is, however, up and to the left.

          On your way out, don't let the door hit you on the....

          1. TeeCee Gold badge
            Facepalm

            Er, actually one of yer standard skool geography trivia bits is that Australia is unique in being a Country, a Continent *and* an Island, all at the same time.

            The innate inability of Australia to decide what it is explains Barry Humphries.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spectacular*

    *for New Zealand

  3. Blofeld's Cat
    Happy

    Australia...

    Or as my NZ cousin calls it ... the "West Island".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That would be Tasmania? :-)

      A public-librarian friend had a parent come in looking for information on Tasmania for their daughter's school assignment, which was to be on a country other than Australia!

      Some days we exist only to make the US look good.

      1. proto-robbie
        Facepalm

        Or the place on the map...

        ...called Iraq, according to some Americans.

        1. Mayhem

          saw that map...

          I preferred the 'I never realised North Korea was so much bigger than South Korea' bit.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    pretty good, I would have like to see great whites or Tigers go up against an Orcas. Guess I'll catch it this year on SciFi channel.

    1. Dazed and Confused

      Orcas eat Great Whites too

      if you have a quick Google you'll find all sorts of references.

      such as this from the Torygraph

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6668575/Killer-whales-attack-and-eat-sharks.html

      Being air breathing, Orcas can absorb far more oxygen than gill breathers so can develop a lot more power.

      1. moonface

        Orcas v Great Whites

        I have seen this and these fights are actually pretty dull.

        The Orca hit the sharks and flip them on their backs. They then keep them upside down until they go into a catatonic state. Where the Orca will then start dining at their leisure.

        In fight terms it would be a bit like watching Royce Gracie quickly choking out Arnold Schwarzenegger.

        1. lglethal Silver badge
          Joke

          ;)

          "In fight terms it would be a bit like watching Royce Gracie quickly choking out Arnold Schwarzenegger."

          Or Chuck norris taking on everybody... at the same time...

  5. Steve Evans

    Blimee...

    I don't blame the sharks one bit!

    If I was being picked on my a pod of Orcas I'd be throwing myself up the beach and attempting to develop lungs and legs in double quick time too!

  6. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    punctuated evolution in action?

    sharks with feet?

    <--- see

  7. Voland's right hand Silver badge
    Devil

    You need to watch the movie

    It is Free Willie - on one of his bad hair days. You need to watch the movie.

  8. rpics
    Thumb Up

    the sharks

    were 7 gill sharks - we catch them from the beach here while surfcasting.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadnose_sevengill_shark

  9. Scott 26
    Thumb Up

    Slow news day in Australia

    Author is in Oz. NZ-Ozzie friendly rivalry dictates items like this get reported in Oz (no doubt resulting in such comments as "call that a shark attack? THIS is a shark attack!")

  10. Silverburn
    Thumb Up

    Orca's = evil bastards

    People need to forget the Free Willy image of Orca's. They're a bunch of clever, sadistic (seen what they do to seals?), eat-anything-including-you bastards.

    Can't help but admire them though, and evolution for coming up with such an efficient air-breathing apex predator.

    (For the creationists: What I meant was "Isn't god wonderful for coming up with these 6000 years ago?")

  11. Arctic fox
    Happy

    Paws?

    "...........who owns the dog seen harassing a shark in the video...........

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Careful there,...

    in my small NZ hometown, if someone called you Australian at school you were morally obliged to smack the bastard. (I lost a lot of fights at college). Explains why Russell Crowe is such a w*nker tho.

  13. Citizen Kaned

    not first time...

    ive seen video footage of orcas taking on great whites and winning.

    apparently all sharks become paralysed if they are turned upside down. so the orcas basically ram them from the underside while another distracts the shark. once upside down they stop them turning then they suffocate.

    i think this was off the coast of San Francisco. impressive to watch.

  14. jai

    Pete Robinson?

    that's surely not the same Pete Robinson of NME and KLF fanzine fame is it?

  15. jungle_jim
    Joke

    well

    whale i never!

  16. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    What the sharks really want is

    FRIKKIN' LASERS!!!

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      Trouble is

      if the sharks had FRIKKIN' LASERS!!! the Orcas would respond with SMEGGIN' TACTICAL NUKES!!!11, they're that hardcore.

  17. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    "....the dog seen harassing a shark in the video..."

    Ah yes, the rare Massive Bollocked Nutterhound if I am not mistaken. They do that sort of thing you know.....

  18. Kernel
    Happy

    @ mr.K

    "Yes, that is my hat and coat. Why do you a..oh, you want me to take it and leave, got it"

    Only if you're in NZ - if you're in Oz they will have been stolen by now anyway, so just focus on the leaving part.

    The essential difference between NZ and OZ is that being a Kiwi my ancestors actually bought tickets to get here, as opposed to being given a free overseas holiday.

  19. Nudge
    Facepalm

    @kernel

    ..."if you're in Oz they will have been stolen by now anyway"...

    you left out the 'by a kiwi' bit.

    I worked in a juvenile detention centre to pay for my uni fees, and sadly over 40% of the detainees identified as kiwi.

    1. SDoradus
      Thumb Up

      Ali Baba and his forty thousand thieves

      Indeed. There's a certain tendency for Kiwi yobbos to believe that in NZ they'll be watched, but in a bigger arena they'll be anonymous. So bad behaviour is less likely to be punished.

      Now that I think about it that's been going on for a long time. The NZ Army led by General Freyberg in the Second World War was known to some shocked allies as "Ali Baba and his forty thousand thieves".

  20. Sean O'Connor 1
    Happy

    Would have been a better story if the dog at the end's name had been Fenton.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like