Grim discovery on Victoria beach after great white shark was found missing half its body

• Body of a Great White found on beach
• Half eaten carcass of the animal has washed up 
• READ MORE: Surfer saves himself from shark attack 

Beachgoers were left horrified after they discovered the remains of a four-metre-long great white shark that had washed up on shore with half of its body missing. 

The body of the three metre shark was discovered by locals on Bridgewater Beach near Cape Bridgewater, around 370km south-west of Melbourne, on Tuesday. 

Footage taken at the scene by local fisherman Ben Johnstone shows the dead shark lying on the sand. 

The lower part of the animal’s body appears to have been torn apart with only the upper portion of its body still intact. 

Killer whales are suspected of mauling the great white shark before its body washed up on shore.

The body of the great white shark (pictured) was found on Bridgewater beach by locals on Tuesday

Mr Johnstone told Daily Mail Australia he came down to the beach after a friend told him about the gruesome discovery. 

‘I got a tip-off…that it might be out there,’ Mr Johnstone said. 

‘I [had] no idea what had happened’. 

Mr Johnstone, who is the bait shop manager at Portland Bait and Tackle, said the shark could have been attacked by orcas that were searching for food. 

He said the whales were seen near the beach a few days before the shark washed up on shore. 

‘It probably happened in between when they were spotted in the area…when it washed up on the beach,’ he said.

‘The carcass was pretty fresh when I went down there.’ 

Mr Johnstone said orcas do prey on sharks to get at a part of the meat but bizarrely  don’t consume the rest of the animal. 

‘They [killer whales] do eat the livers out of…white sharks, that’s the only part of it  they eat,’ he said.

‘The head and pretty much everything else [was left] pretty much intact… they just want the livers.’

Parts of the animal were ripped apart (pictured) in a savage attack which was believed to have been carried out by pods of killer whales

Local fisherman Ben Johnstone (pictured) said he was told the shark had washed up on the beach by a friend before he went down to take a look on Tuesday

Parts of the shark’s carcass were taken away for testing. 

Flinders University trophic ecologist Lauren Meyer told the ABC killer whales along with other whale species have a particular liking for the internal organs of sharks. 

‘We see this with things like humpback whales, where [killer whales] come in and actually eat the tongue and leave the rest of the whale,’ she said.

‘We certainly see that they prefer the liver of white sharks, mako sharks, bronze whalers and sevengills, and even tiger sharks.

Ms Meyer said orcas are known to hunt only for particular types of food and each group of whales behave differently which makes them very difficult to analyse by marine experts.  

‘They’re relatively elusive and each different pod and ecotype has such specific behaviour that it’s hard to draw conclusions across all of killer whales because they all act so differently,’ Ms Meyer said. 

Experts say killer whales along with other whale species have a particular liking for the internal organs (pictured) of sharks.

Mr Johnstone said  killer whales do visit the Portland bay area on occasion.  

‘Every know and then they [whales] will show up out here…you won’t see them for a few years,’ he said. 

‘For about two weeks they will hang around’. 

He said it’s the first time he’s seen the carcass of a shark wash up on the beach mauled like the way it was. 

‘I’ve seen it on TV before, but to actually see it locally is pretty cool’.  

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