MONTEREY — A family group of five killer whales hunted and killed a gray whale calf as it passed through Monterey Bay on Saturday with its mother, a four-hour attack captured on video.

Monterey Bay Whale Watch, which captured the attack on video, said the incident Saturday marked the first time the company has filmed a killer whale attack from start to finish with a drone.

“We were watching the killer whales near the south canyon edge of the canyon as they zig zagged back and forth when suddenly they rapidly sped up and pounced on the mom and calf gray whale pair,” Nancy Black, a marine biologist and owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, wrote in an e-mail.

The gray whale mother and calf were migrating north to Alaska and passing through Monterey Bay, Black said.

“This area is one of the most dangerous parts of their long migration from Mexico to Alaska as killer whales frequent Monterey Bay during the gray whales’ spring migration and patrol the canyon edges looking for them,” said Black, who has studied killer whales for over 30 years.

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Killer whale season in the Monterey Bay In the video, the killer whales are seen repeatedly working as a team to ram the calf and separate it from its mother. Black said the mother gray whale “struggled to protect her calf from these powerful predators.”

The video was provided courtesy of Monterey Bay Whale Watch/Gowhales.com.