Jacobs witnessed a white-tailed eagle swooping down to the surface of the water during high tide and being met by an adult gray seal that emerged directly beneath the raptor.
Jacobs said the seal barked a warning at the eagle before letting loose with a stream of a water aimed toward the swooping bird.
"I'm always thrilled to catch photos of the eagles. But catching such a rare and never before seen interaction made my year," Jacobs said in a University of Portsmouth news release.
Megan Jacobs, the birdwatcher's daughter and a paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth's School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, co-authored the study based on her mother's encounter and the photos she snapped of the interaction.
"Sightings of gray seals and white-tailed eagles are frequent events now on the Isle of Wight, but interactions between these two species have so far not been reported," Megan Jacobs said.
She said the photographs mark multiple firsts for researchers.
"This is the first record of an interaction between these two top predators and the first report of gray seals using spitting as a means of defense or deterrence against an aerial foe," she said.
"The spitting may be a strategy to exclude white-tailed eagles from competing for prey as they're in direct competition for fish resources."
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