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The astonishing clip came about almost completely by chance after a boat of whale-watchers lucked out on the rare meeting between two of the ocean’s most feared predators.

Shot near the Farallon Islands, off the coast of California, US, the clip begins showing a monster great white shark circling the vessel.

The giant beast stays unusually close to the hull of the boat while a huge killer whale patrols the waters close by with her calf following in tow.

(Image: NAT GEO)

Suddenly the shark makes a getaway attempt, but the orca intercepts as the water erupts with fierce thrashing before falling eerily silent.

A few moments later, the killer whale reappears near the surface of the water showing off the lifeless body of the great white clamped in its jaws.

Before long, the pair begin tearing the dead animal apart in a gory feeding frenzy hoping to get to the shark’s liver – a known delicacy to the killer whale due to its high concentration of the nutrient squalene.

The footage was originally shot in 1997 – but in recent months, researchers have noticed a sharp upturn in a number of dead great whites being found near the coast of South Africa.

(Image: NAT GEO)

And experts believe the orca’s hunt for shark liver is a big reason why.

“It comes down to whether the killer whales are going after the shark at their vulnerable spot to disable them and eat an important part of them,” George Burgess, Director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told Gizmodo.

“Or if they’re there to essentially play with something that they’ve defeated, a la the cat.”