Passengers aboard a transportation boat off Ventura, California, were witness Sunday to a feast involving a floating minke whale carcass and more than a dozen hungry sharks, including three great whites.



The rare sighting was aboard a high-speed catamaran out of Island Packers, which delivers passengers to and from islands within Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.



It's unclear how the minke whale died, but to sharks lured in by the scent of the decomposing carcass, the whale represented sustenance for days, perhaps weeks.

Andrea Mills, who works for Island Packers and captured the footage in both clips, said on the company Facebook page that three white sharks and at least a dozen blue sharks could be seen gorging on the carcass.

She said via email that the carcass was seven miles offshore, and that the vessel stayed with the feasting sharks for about 30 minutes.

"The blues were most consistently present, circling and feeding for several minutes at a time," she added. "Our assumption is that the great whites were circling deeper, and then would come up periodically (maybe every 10 minutes or so), at which time the blues cleared out of the way to let them feed.

"They would disappear again, and the blues would return to the carcass."

The top clip shows the white sharks and the bottom clip shows blue sharks. As viewers can see, the water was calm and ultra-clear.

The top image is a video screen grab showing a white shark enjoying a large bite of whale flesh.