Sperm whales drop 'bubble of poo' off WA to prevent orca attack in rarely recorded encounter

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Sperm whales off Western Australia's southern coast have successfully defended themselves from an attack by a pod of orca by defecating at will, creating a "cloud of diarrhoea".

The rare defence mechanism thwarted the likely fatal attack at the Bremer Canyon — a marine life hotspot about 50 kilometres off the coast between Albany and Hopetoun — on Tuesday.

Marine biologist Jennah Tucker, who works on board Naturaliste Charters tour boat, witnessed the incident.

"And everything kind of went quiet and there was very solemn sort of mood on the deck of the boat because we thought they'd potentially taken out a calf, as one of the sperm whales did look significantly smaller than the others," Ms Tucker said.

Tourists and scientists flock to the area to witness orcas, often in pods of more than 50, hunt animals including a first ever recorded blue whale attack.

This attempt comes as observers in Bremer Bay report they have witnessed the most orca predations for this March than any other March— six in the past two weeks, nine for the month.

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