A shark is the biggest, baddest predator in the ocean. Right?
The answer is no, although sharks are right near the top when it comes to apex ocean predators. In 1997 off the coast of California a group of people on a boat witnessed a truly spectacular sight, a killer whale eating a great white shark. Here is a link to the video taken by a passenger on the boat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8GaDuCvYbE
According to National Geographic, killer whales may have sharks pinned when it comes to who eats who if it does come down to that. Both sharks and whales would much rather eat something just as tasty and less dangerous than each other I am sure. Whales being mammals breath differently than sharks which need constant water passing through their gills to break. The killer whale will grab the shark and "hold" it upside down inducing what is called tonic immobility. This prevents the shark from breathing and, if the whale doesn't kill it by then, in 15 minutes the shark could be dead from lack of oxygen.
In the 1997 incident a female killer whale killed a decent sized great white (9-12ft) and the witnesses reported that it appeared that the killer whale held the shark upside down to kill it. The female killer whale and another podmate then tore the great white apart to eat its liver and let the rest of the shark sink to the bottom.
There is a great documentary done on this by National Geographic called "The Whale that Ate Jaws"
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