Researchers have documented the latest instance of orca antics in the Gulf of California. The world’s largest dolphins work together to explode a sunfish.
In at least two separately recorded instances from 2024 and 2025, one orca (Orcinus orca) held a sunfish in its mouth, while the other made a beeline for the fish. The sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus), which is the ocean’s heaviest bony fish, exploded on impact. Then, a juvenile orca started feeding on the sunfish confetti while the adults fed on the more intact part of the carcass.
The “ram-to-fragment” strategy was described in a new paper published in Frontiers in Ethology. The researchers think it could be a behavior to help orcas feed their young—or just plain fun.
