THREE Great White Sharks have mysteriously washed up on beaches with their LIVERS torn out this month.
The beasts are thought to have been slaughtered by Killer Whales in the sea's greatest clash of forces.
Both animals are locked in a deadly battle for survival off the coast of South Africa, where all three Great Whites were found.
But while this is surprising, experts say the "surgical precision" with which the sharks have been killed is the real shock.
It is the recognisable mark of an Orca - known as the "wolves of the sea".
Scientists believe the Killer Whales have developed a taste for a compound within the Great Whites' livers.
Top marine boffins think the squalene found in the liver oil of the sharks is what the Orca's are after.
Alison Towner, a biologist with the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, wrote in a Facebook post: "Nature can be so cruel and the dexterity these enormous animals are capable of is mind blowing… almost surgical precision as they remove the squalene-rich liver of the white sharks and dump their carcass."
Ingrid Visser, an expert who has studied killer whales for nearly 20 whales, says the beasts use powerful waves to drive sharks to the sea surface before attacking.
She said: "Once the shark is at the surface, the killer whale pivots and lifts its tail out of the water and comes down on top of it like a karate chop."
Alison Towner, a biologist from the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, added: “They work together and are very co-ordinated.
"Two orcas take a pectoral fin in their mouth and pull open a shark together to extract the liver.”
The shock find comes after one of Britain's last remaining Orca whales died with "extreme levels of toxic pollutants".
Lulu washed ashore a Scottish island back in 2016 – leaving just eight of her kind behind.
A damning analysis revealed Lulu had levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) far more than 100 times the safe limit.
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