'Fascinated and horrified' scientists watched as a killer whale drowned another orca's calf

When Jared Towers and two of his colleagues set out to observe a group of orcas off the coast of Vancouver Island, they assumed it would be a routine excursion. In fact, Towers, a cetacean researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, was already familiar with this particular pod of killer whales, having documented them on previous research trips.