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Killer whales attack and sink sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar — again

By Emily Mae Czachor

Updated on: May 14, 2024 / 4:54 PM EDT / CBS News

A sailing yacht sunk in the Strait of Gibraltar on Sunday after an unknown number of orcas  slammed into the vessel with two people on board and caused a water leak, officials said. Both crew members were rescued by a passing oil tanker, said Spain's maritime rescue service, marking the latest killer whale attack on a boat in what has become a pattern in recent years.

The incident happened at around 9 a.m. local time in the narrow strait between Spain and Morocco that has become a notorious site of human interactions with pods of killer whales that, for reasons still not fully understood, ram into boats and at times even sink them . In this case, crew members on board the SV Alboran Cognac yacht put out an emergency call for an evacuation after they encountered orcas roughly 14 miles off the coast of Cape Spartel. 

The crew members reported feeling blows to the hull of the vessel and rudder, which was damaged by the whales, the rescue service said. The agency's coordination center in Tarifa, on the Spanish side of the Strait of Gibraltar, helped arrange for their evacuation via the tanker MT Lascaux. The tanker was able to collect the crew members from the sinking yacht within the hour, and they disembarked in Gibraltar before 10:30 a.m. They abandoned the SV Alboran Cognac, which proceeded to completely disappear into the ocean.

Anyone sailing through waters from the Gulf of Cádiz in southern Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar, either in a larger motorized vessel or a personal sailing boat, is advised to avoid certain areas that the maritime rescue service marks as potentially dangerous spots for orca interactions. The greatest threats exist between May and August, when officials say that pods of killer whales are most commonly seen in those parts of the Atlantic. 

But previously recorded incidents suggest those dangers may be present at any time. Last October, a Polish boat touring company reported that a pod of orcas had managed to sink one of its yachts after repeatedly slamming into the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing it to leak. Last June, two sailing teams competing in an international race around the world reported frightening scenarios in which multiple orcas rammed into or pushed up against their boats or as they sailed west of Gibraltar. 

No one on board any of the vessels was hurt in those encounters, but the documented rise in confrontational behavior has researchers and sailors trying to determine why orcase have attempted to sink or capsize so many boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. 

Some sailors have even resorted to blasting thrash metal music in a bid to deter the apex predators.

Reports of orcas interacting with humans have more than tripled in the last two years or so, according to the research group GTOA, which has documented hundreds of such incidents in the region since 2020. But some of the latest data points to possible changes in the orcas' etiquette, with the group reporting only 26 interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar and Bay of Biscay areas between January and May of this year. That number is 65% lower than the number of interactions recorded in the region over the same months last year, and 40% lower than the average number of interactions recorded in the same months between 2021 and 2023, according to GTOA.

• Boat Accident

Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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Video shows orcas attacking a sailor's yacht off the coast of Portugal, forcing him to send out a distress signal

• Orcas attacked a yacht off the coast of Portugal, causing the panicked sailor to hit his emergency beacon.
• They continued the attack even as the yacht was being towed away by a rescue boat.
• Experts are divided on the reasons behind the increasing trend of orcas ramming boats.

A yacht was attacked by a group of orcas off the coast of Portugal on Monday, causing a panicked sailor to light up his emergency beacon.

Phep Philouceros, a 70-year-old retired sailor, was sailing to Royan, France when the attack occurred. He filmed two of the orcas ripping chunks off his boat  Oxygene  — including the yacht's rudder — according to reports in  the Telegraph  and  Fox News , which cited British news service SWNS.

It was unclear how SWNS acquired the footage.

In the video, five orcas can be seen following the yacht with two of them visibly ramming the back of the boat. The killer whales' fins can also be seen surfacing in the water around the yacht.

The rudder was destroyed in one minute and pulled out," Philouceros told SWNS. He explained that by the time he noticed the orcas approaching, it was too late to scare them off using underwater pingers or firecrackers.

A rescue boat arrived within 10 to 15 minutes, but the orcas continued to ram his yacht for another half hour as it was being towed back to the port of Sagres, Portugal, per Philouceros. There were no injuries reported.

Philouceros, who encountered such an attack for the first time, thinks the orcas were young. "They were about six or seven meters long. They were neither adults nor babies. If the orcas really wanted to sink the boat, they could have done it easily. I don't think it was their intention," the sailor said. 

Related stories

This attack was not an isolated one. Since May 1, there have been 23 recorded instances of orcas engaging with yachts in the waters of Portugal, Spain, and the Straits of Gibraltar, the Telegraph reported , citing data from the Cruising Association.

These incidences are part of a growing trend in Southwest Europe, with the number of orcas ramming boats rising from 52 such incidents in 2020, to 207 last year , according to a July 19 report by the Guardian.

Experts are divided on the motivation behind these attacks . Orcas attacks may be motivated by the animals trying to protect their young, a working group of scientists told the BBC .

However, Orca expert Renaud de Stephanis told the BBC that orcas could be attacking boats  simply because they enjoy playing with boat rudders , which then break under the killer whales' force.

Portugal's maritime authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Watch: Orcas are under threat from man-made noise pollution. These scientists are fighting to protect them.

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Horrifying footage shows orcas attacking british couple’s yacht.

Terrifying footage has emerged of the moment a pod of orcas descended on a British couple’s yacht – and proceeded to spend the next hour ramming the vessel.

Janet Morris and Stephen Bidwell, of Cambridge, were enjoying the second day of a week-long sailing course on the Strait of Gibraltar when they felt a banging on the hull.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw them – it’s extremely rare. We were sitting ducks,” Janet, a business consultant, told the Daily Mail of the surreal moment.

Video of the incident shows the aggressive pod repeatedly swimming into the hull and rudder of the 46-foot Bavaria yacht.

The crew struggled to keep the whales at bay while also battling blustery winds and high swells.

“We were amazingly calm but underneath we were thinking, ‘Oh my god,’” Janet explained.

“Because everyone was calm it felt okay, but we were petrified, it wasn’t until afterwards that we talked about being very scared. We got our valuables and our passports and talked about getting the life raft ready.”

“We all remained calm because we were aware that if any of us got anxious it would be infectious. We were able to do that because the skipper was so calm,” Stephen, a photographer, added.

“Orcas enjoy the thrill of the chase, so ideally we’d have kept still, but that wasn’t possible because of the winds.”

The orcas ultimately gave up the chase after about an hour, but the crew decided to return to shore because the boat’s steering was failing.

On their return to port, they realized that the whales had taken chunks of the rudder.

Both Janet and Stephen are qualified to captain and charter sailboats.

They were taking the course off the coast of Tangier to rack up more sailing hours.

The couple was asleep below deck in preparation for their night watch shift when the whales first descended.

“We were on the course to get experience, and we’ll know what to do if this happens again,” Janet said.

The Strait of Gibraltar is known for its orca population, which can cause problems for boaters.

In March, a sailboat was disabled off Cape Spartel when a pod of orcas broke the rudder, The Maritime Executive reported .

Between July and October 2020, there were at least 40 orca incidents involving sailboats in the area around Spain and Portugal, the outlet said.

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Why are orcas attacking boats and sometimes sinking them?

After four years and hundreds of incidents, researchers remain puzzled why orcas, also known as killer whales, continue to ram boats – sinking a few of them – along the Iberian Peninsula. The most-recent incident was the sinking of a yacht on Oct. 31 in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The origin of these interactions remain a "great mystery," said Alfredo López, a University of Santiago biologist, but he does not believe the behavior is aggressive. Orcas are large dolphins, López said. And like dolphins, the events could stem from the orcas’ curious and playful behavior, such as trying to race the boats.

López, who specializes in orcas, and his team, Grupo de trabajo Orca Atlántica (GOTA) , have tracked these encounters since 2020. The team’s recent study theorizes the orcas could also be exhibiting cautionary behavior because of some previous traumatic incident.

Where have killer whales interacted with boats?

GOTA has tracked more than 350 interactions just on the Iberian Peninsula since 2020. Most have taken place along the Strait of Gibraltar, but the orcas’ mischief or self-defense may be spreading north. An incident was reported in June in the  Shetland Islands in Scotland .

GOTA defines interactions as instances when orcas react to the presence of approaching boats, such as:

• Interaction without physical contact.
• Some physical contact without damage.
• Contact that causes serious damage that could prevent the navigation of the boat.

Recent incidents when orcas attacked boats and sank them

The Oct. 31 incident occurred in the Strait of Gibraltar where a pod of orcas sank a mid-size sailing yacht named the Grazie Mamma after a 45-minute interaction,  Live Science reported . 

On June 19 an orca rammed a 7-ton yacht multiple times off the Shetland Islands in Scotland, according to an account from retired Dutch physicist Dr. Wim Rutten in the Guardian.

"Killer whales are capable of traveling large distances, so it is not out of the ordinary that an animal could travel that far," said Tara Stevens, a marine scientist at CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. "To my knowledge, this data is not available, so we cannot confirm at this time if these are the same animals." 

Including the Oct. 31 incident, orcas have sunk four boats this year. The previous sinking occured in May , off the coasts of Portugal and Spain, but whale expert Anne Gordon told USA TODAY  in May that the incidents shouldn't heighten concerns about the whales.

"Yes, they're killer whales. And yes, their job is to be predators in the ocean, but in normal circumstances there is absolutely zero threat to humans in a boat," Gordon said .

Most of the interactions have involved sailboats, but fishing boats, semi-rigid boats and motorboats haven’t gone unscathed. 

Are these the same killer whales attacking boats or unrelated incidents?

López hypothesizes that the interactions could be a self-induced behavior where you're "inventing something new and repeat it. This behavior coincides with the profile of the juveniles." He said it could also be response to an aversive situation: "One or several individuals had lived a bad experience and tried to stop the boat so as not to repeat it. This behavior coincides with the profile of adults."

"Fifteen different orcas from at least three different communities" have been identified, López said. And they are probably teaching the habit to others, or the others are mimicking the behavior. "Without a doubt orcas learn by imitation," López said.  The majority of the culprits are juveniles that touch, push and sometimes turn the vessels. He noted that adult males don't appear to be involved.

"Killer whales are incredibly intelligent animals that do learn behaviors from observation of other individuals," Stevens said. "Typically, very unique behaviors such as this are learned 'within' group, meaning individuals of the group may learn from each other and participate, but that does not necessarily mean that the behavior is shared outside the group with other individuals."

Which pods of killer whales are battering the boats?

Orcas operate in a social structure called a pod. These pods generally are a group of several generations of related orcas. Hierarchies are established within them, and they communicate and learn from one another, the study reads.

GOTA researchers have identified the individuals responsible for the interactions . One large pod is made up of three generations. It starts with grandmother Gladis Lamari, her daughter, grandchildren and a few other relatives.

Another pod comprises siblings Gladis Negra and Gladis Peque. Both have been photographed interacting with boats. Their mother, Gladis Herbille, has generally just watched her children at a distance from the boats, the study said.

A third group in the study are siblings and a cousin.

Orcas often tracking bluefin tuna

The movements of orcas depend on the location of their main food source, bluefin tuna. The migratory movements of tuna are very dynamic and predicting exactly where interactions will take place is very difficult, the report said. According to NOAA , Atlantic bluefin tuna are the largest in the tuna family and can reach a length of 13 feet and up to 2,000 pounds. They are a highly migratory species and can migrate thousands of miles across an entire ocean.

About the Iberian orcas

While they are called killer whales, orcas are actually the largest member of the dolphin family. This aquatic marine mammal family includes whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The Iberian orca is a subpopulation of the Atlantic orca population. These orcas are from the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cádiz. Iberian orcas are small: 16 to 21 feet compared with Atlantic orcas that measure almost 30 feet.

Orcas in general are fast, reaching speeds up to 27.6 mph. By comparison, a 39-foot sailboat travels at about 9.2 mph.

What should you do if your boat is attacked by killer whales

The study recommended these tips to reduce the duration and intensity of the interaction.

• Stop the boat.
• Leave the rudder loose.
• Radio for help.

According to the GOTA study, most of the vessels involved in interactions are medium-sized (less than 49 feet) sailboats, with a paddle rudder, sailing at an average of 6.9 mph, under both sail and motor.

The interactions have been mostly concentrated in the spring and summer months and have been concentrated in the midday hours. They've lasted on average for 40 minutes, but several last less than 30 minutes. 

Types of rudders Iberian orcas have approached

"It is very common for dolphins to interact with the boats and approach," López said. "Before 2020, the orcas did it with frequency but they weren't classified as attacks. Now, sometimes they touch the boat and the encounter is unfairly classified as an attack. They judge socially before understanding what (orcas) do."

Orca pod rams yacht in latest killer whale attack in Spain

A Belgian couple were attacked by an 11-strong pod of killer whales while sailing near Spain in their yacht.

Wim Vandenhende, 43, and Dana Huens, 36, were travelling past Spain on their way home from Greece when a pod of orcas “came out of nowhere” to attack the boat.

Iberian orcas are gaining notoriety along the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal, as they begin to attack boats while they follow shoals of bluefin tuna from Gibraltar.

In May, two sailors had to be rescued by an oil tanker after a pod of orcas sank their sailing yacht. That month, researchers revealed that nearly 700 incidents of killer whales ramming into boats near the Iberian Peninsula had been documented.

Mr Vandenhende and Ms Huens were in their yacht, the Amidala, sailing near the Galician coast near A Coruña on Sunday afternoon.

The couple were resting before their three-day Bay of Biscay crossing when the surprise attack came.

“It happened very unexpectedly — the orcas came out of nowhere,” Vandenhende said, reports the Times.

“Suddenly we felt a heavy thud, as if we had hit something,” Vandenhende added. “When I looked over the side, I suddenly saw an orca surface next to our boat, close by. If I had stuck out my hand, I could have just touched it.”

The couple tried to sail away but the yacht’s rudder was repeatedly rammed by the aggressive orca pod - forcing them to call a Spanish rescue boat for help.

“We saw an orca who followed us the whole time and seemed to be keeping watch about 30 metres from our sailboat,” Vandenhende said.

“That was quite scary. We then tried to stay calm and focus on the things we could still do on board while waiting for the rescue services to arrive.”

The rescue tugboat arrived to pull them in but it was just half an hour before the orcas returned.

Mr Vandenhende said the attack itself was “actually not too bad”, saying you “get such an adrenaline rush and you are so focussed that you don’t have time to be afraid”.

He added: “When the orcas came back later, it was less fun. But I think the real fear will only come when we have to leave here again with the boat.”

The yacht was badly damaged and will be in a dry dock for repairs over the coming weeks.

Questions have been raised regarding the increase in orca attacks near the Spanish coast.

Marine biologist Alex Zerbini , chair of the scientific committee at the International Whaling Commission (IWC), told the Washington Post that there is “nothing in the behaviour of the animals that suggests that they’re being aggressive”.

“As they play with the rudder, they don’t understand that they can damage the rudder and that damaging the rudder will affect human beings. It’s more playful than intentional,” he added.

Small boats were warned to stick to the coastline around Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar to avoid the frightening interactions with killer whales.

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Killer whales are 'attacking' sailboats near Europe's coast. Scientists don't know why

Scott Neuman

An orca pod seen in the Strait of Gibraltar in 2021. Renaud de Stephanis/CIRCE Conservación Information and Research hide caption

An orca pod seen in the Strait of Gibraltar in 2021.

Ester Kristine Storkson was asleep on her father's small yacht earlier this month, sailing off the coast of France, when she was violently awakened.

Scrambling on deck, she spotted several orcas, or killer whales, surrounding them. The steering wheel swung wildly. At one point, the 37-foot sailboat was pushed through 180 degrees, heading it in the opposite direction.

They were "ramming the boat," Storkson says. "They [hit] us repeatedly ... giving us the impression that it was a coordinated attack."

"I told my dad, 'I'm not thinking clearly, so you need to think for me,'" the 27-year-old Norwegian medical student says. "Thankfully, he is a very calm and centered person, and made me feel safe by gently talking about the situation."

After about 15 minutes, the orcas broke off, leaving father and daughter to assess the damage. They stuck a GoPro camera in the water, she says, and could see that "approximately three-quarters of [the rudder] was broken off, and some metal was bent."

A screen grab from a video of the encounter between a pod of orcas and the Storkson boat. Ester Kristine Storkson hide caption

A screen grab from a video of the encounter between a pod of orcas and the Storkson boat.

For any vessel, losing steering at sea is a serious matter and can be dangerous in adverse conditions and some sailboats have had to be towed into port after orcas destroyed their rudders. Fortunately, the Storksons had enough of their rudder left to limp into Brest, on the French coast, for repairs. But the incident temporarily derailed their plan to reach Madeira, off northwest Africa, part of an ambitious plan to sail around the world.

There is no record of an orca killing a human in the wild. Still, two boats were reportedly sunk by orcas off the coast of Portugal last month, in the worst such encounter since authorities have tracked them.

The incident involving the Storksons is an outlier, says Renaud de Stephanis, president and coordinator at CIRCE Conservación Information and Research, a cetacean research group based in Spain. It was farther north -- nowhere near the Strait of Gibraltar, nor the coast of Portugal or Spain, where other such reports have originated.

That is a conundrum. Up to now, scientists have assumed that only a few animals are involved in these encounters and that they are all from the same pod, de Stephanis says.

"I really don't understand what happened there," he acknowledges. "It's too far away. I mean, I don't think that [the orcas] would go up there for a couple of days and then come back."

These encounters — most scientists shun the word "attack" — have been getting the attention of sailors and scientists alike in the past two years, as their frequency seems to be increasing. Sailing magazines and websites have written about the phenomenon, noting that orcas seem to be especially attracted to a boat's rudder. A Facebook group , with more than 13,000 members, has sprung up to trade personal reports of boat-orca encounters and speculation on avoidance tactics. And, of course, there are no shortage of dramatic videos posted to YouTube.

Scientists don't know the reason, but they have some ideas

Scientists hypothesize that orcas like the water pressure produced by a boat's propeller. "What we think is that they're asking to have the propeller in the face," de Stephanis says. So, when they encounter a sailboat that isn't running its engine, "they get kind of frustrated and that's why they break the rudder."

Even so, that doesn't entirely explain an experience Martin Evans had last June when he was helping to deliver a sailboat from Ramsgate, England, to Greece.

About 25 miles off the coast of Spain, "just shy of entering the Strait of Gibraltar," Evans and his crew mates were under sail, but they were also running the boat's engine with the propeller being used to boost their speed.

As Evans was on watch, the steering wheel began moving so violently that he couldn't hold on, he says.

"I was like, 'Jesus, what's this?'" he recalls. "It was like a bus was moving it. ... I look to the side, and all of a sudden I could just see that familiar white and black of the killer whale."

Evans noticed "chunks of the rudder on the surface."

Jared Towers, the director of Bay Cetology, a research organization in British Columbia, says "there's something about moving parts ... that seem to stimulate them."

"Perhaps that's why they're focused on the rudders," he says.

The population of orcas along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts is small and de Stephanis believes that the damage to boats is being done by just a few juvenile males.

If so, they may simply outgrow the behavior, de Stephanis says. As the young males get older, they will need to help the pod hunt for food and will have less time for playing with sailboats.

"This is a game," he speculates. "When they ... have their own adult life, it will probably stop."

An orca calf, photographed in the Strait of Gibraltar, in 2021. Renaud de Stephanis/CIRCE Conservación Information and Research hide caption

An orca calf, photographed in the Strait of Gibraltar, in 2021.

Towers says such "games" tend to go in and out of fashion in orca society. For example, right now in a population he studies in the Pacific, "we have juvenile males who ... often interact with prawn and crab traps," he says. "That's just been a fad for a few years."

Back in the 1990s, for some orcas in the Pacific, something else was in vogue. "They'd kill fish and just swim around with this fish on their head," Towers says. "We just don't see that anymore."

Orcas sank three boats off the coast of Portugal, but don't call them 'killer' just yet

Three recent incidents of orcas seemingly attacking and sinking boats off the southwestern tip of Europe are drawing intense scrutiny over whether the animals deliberately swarmed the vessels and if they are learning the aggressive behavior from one another.

Encounters between orcas, or killer whales, and boats have been increasing since 2020, though no human injuries or deaths have been reported. In most cases, the whales have not sunk the boats.

The string of incidents since 2020 prompted one scientist in Portugal to say the attacks may indicate that the whales are intending to cause damage to sailing vessels. Others, however, are more skeptical, saying that while the behavior may be coordinated, it’s not necessarily coordinated aggression.

“I think it gets taken as aggression because it’s causing damage, but I don’t think we can say that the motivation is aggressive necessarily,” said Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington state.

At least 15 interactions between orcas and boats off the Iberian coast were reported in 2020, according to a study published last June in the journal Marine Mammal Science .

In November 2020, Portugal’s National Maritime Authority issued a statement alerting sailors about “curious behavior” among juvenile killer whales. The statement said the whales may be attracted to rudders and propellers and may try to approach boats.

The subsequent sinkings have caused more alarm.

The most recent encounter occurred on May 4 off the coast of Spain. Three orcas struck the rudder and side of a sailing yacht, causing it to eventually sink, as was reported earlier this month in a German publication called Yacht .

One theory put forward by Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, suggested that the aggression started from a female orca that was perhaps struck by a boat — a traumatic experience that caused her to start ramming sailing vessels. López Fernandez, who co-authored the June 2022 study published in Marine Mammal Science, told Live Science that other orcas may have then picked up that behavior through social learning, which whales have been known to exhibit.

But Shields said orcas have not historically been known to be aggressive toward humans, even when they were being hunted and placed in captivity.

“They’ve certainly had reason to engage in that kind of behavior,” she said. “There are places where they are shot at by fishermen, they’ve watched family members be taken from their groups into captivity in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And if something was going to motivate direct aggression, I would think something like that would have done it.”

Shields added that there are no clear instances of killer whales exhibiting what could be thought of as revenge behavior against humans.

She said the recent attacks on boats are likely more consistent with what’s known as “fad” behavior, which describes novel but temporary conduct from one whale that can be mimicked by others.

“It’s kind of a new behavior or game that one whale seems to come up with, and it seems to spread throughout the population — sometimes for a matter of weeks or months, or in some cases years — but then in a lot of cases it just goes away,” she said.

In the Pacific Northwest, for instance, Shields and her colleagues have observed fad behavior among Southern Resident killer whales who started carrying dead salmon around on their heads for a time before the behavior suddenly stopped.

Shields said the behavior of orcas off the Iberian coast may also be temporary.

“This feels like the same type of thing, where one whale played with a rudder and said: ‘Hey, this is a fun game. Do you want to try it?’ And it’s the current fad for that population of orcas,” she said.

While Shields did not dismiss the trauma response theory out of hand, she said it would be difficult to confirm without more direct evidence.

“We know their brains are wired to have really complex emotions, and so I think they could be capable of something like anger or revenge,” she said. “But again, it’s just not something that we’ve seen any examples of, and we’ve given them plenty of opportunities throughout the world to want to take revenge on us for various things. And they just choose not to.”

Denise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.

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Scientists Have a New Theory About Why Orcas Are Attacking Boats

A pod of orcas damaged a boat and left its two-person crew stranded. It was the latest in a string of attacks that research suggests could be used for hunting practice.

By Lynsey Chutel

Reporting from London

The orcas have struck again — this time ramming a sailboat off Spain’s northwest coast, rescue workers said on Tuesday.

A pod of orcas damaged the rudder of a sailboat, leaving its two-person crew stranded in the waters off Cape Finisterre Sunday, according to an emailed statement from the rescue workers. It is the latest in a string of attacks by pods of orcas swimming around the Iberian Peninsula.

While the sailboat, the Amidala, did not sink, pods of orcas have sunk several vessels in recent years. Researchers still do not know whether the attacks are playful or malicious, but a new theory based on studying the troublesome pods of orcas suggests that they could be using the boats as practice targets for new hunting techniques. Other competing theories still exist.

Regardless of the orcas’ intentions, the behavior is enough to worry sailors journeying in the highly trafficked waters around North Africa, Spain and Portugal.

The Amidala, manned by a crew of two Belgians, encountered an unknown number of orcas on Sunday afternoon. They sent a mayday distress call to the Finisterre Maritime Rescue Center, which towed the vessel back to shore, the center said.

The sailboat’s damaged rudder, and poor weather conditions in the area, made the rescue more arduous, with waves reaching up to nearly 10 feet and winds hitting speeds of 40 miles per hour. A female crew member on the Amidala suffered injuries to her hand as the sailboat was being towed, and she was transferred to a rescue vessel, the rescue center said. After more than four hours, the Amidala made it back to shore.

In recent years, sailors have shared tips about how to stop orca rammings, or at the very least deter them. Deterrents include painting the hull a different color. Another tactic is to blast heavy metal music, or to scatter sand into the ocean. There’s also an app that tracks orca activity in the ocean, letting boats steer clear of pods.

Researchers have no definitive explanations about why orcas, seemingly in this region alone, are increasingly ramming ships. One theory suggests that the ramming stems from past traumatic encounters between orcas and boats. Some scientists think it may be simpler than that — as naturally curious and playful mammals, orcas may just be having some fun.

The other, new, theory comes from the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in Spain, which has been tracking the orca ship rammings since 2020. It has found that orca pods off the coast of Spain, who migrate in the waters between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, have developed a taste of Atlantic bluefin tuna, according to a paper the institute will publish next month.

That species of tuna can grow up to 10 feet long and move at speeds that orcas can’t always catch, at least not without training, said Bruno Díaz López, the institute’s chief biologist. Sailboats are often the ideal size to train on — they move quickly and silently, and close to the water’s surface, not unlike the orcas’ prey.

Researchers studying the ramming incidents have found that it is mostly young orcas who go after sailboats, but sometimes adults appear to be teaching younger members of the pod how to do so. The orcas have also figured out that the rudder is soft enough to bite, and that fiberglass makes for good ramming, Mr. Díaz López said.

“This is like a training toy,” Mr. Díaz López said. “It’s a shame that we humans are in the middle of this game, but they are learning.”

Lynsey Chutel covers South Africa and the countries that make up southern Africa from Johannesburg. More about Lynsey Chutel

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Eye to eye with killer whales "This is one that rams boats"

Fabienne Kipfer

blue News investigates the mysterious orca interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar: During their research, the reporters come very close to a group of the animals - even scientists were amazed.

27.08.2024, 16:14

28.08.2024, 16:47

blue News ist in SFabienne Kipfer

No time? blue News summarizes for you

• Exclusive video footage shows a group of orcas curiously inspecting a boat.
• In the video, a marine biologist explains why he suspects it is the animal that rams and sinks boats in the Strait of Gibraltar.
• In May 2020, orcas were reported interacting with boats for the first time. According to scientists, more than 673 interactions are currently documented.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, repeatedly make headlines in the Strait of Gibraltar because they ram boats. Sometimes the ships are so badly damaged that water enters and the ships sink.

This strange behavior puzzles marine biologists and researchers alike. Before the coronavirus pandemic, there were no such incidents, but since May 2020 there has been a massive increase in cases. Scientists have documented over 670 interactions between marine mammals and boats since the first report.

One group of orcas is apparently primarily responsible for the incidents - referred to as interactions by orca researchers. blue News experienced first-hand how close the animals get to the ships.

Orcas inspect the boat

On a tour with the firmm foundation, a group of orcas suddenly appeared. The intelligent marine mammals approached the boat.

Underwater footage that we took during our research shows the mammals inspecting the hull of the ship on which blue News was traveling.

It quickly became clear to the experts that these animals were members of the group that regularly wreck sailing ships and make headlines. Watch the video to find out why.

Find out what's going on with the orcas and what the mood is like among the fishermen and experts on site in our exclusive report.

Report from Tarifa: blue News explains what could be behind the behavior

More on the topic.

Orcas ram sailboat off northwestern Spain, vessel towed to shore

Orcas rammed a sailboat off the coast of northwestern Spain and damaged the vessel's rudder, prompting the maritime rescue service to tow the boat ashore, the service said on Monday.

The incident was the latest in a series of boat rammings by orca pods off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Scientists have yet to reach a consensus on the reasons for this recent behaviour.

• Download the CTV News App for breaking news alerts and video on all the top stories

One of the sailboat's two crew members seriously injured her hand during the towing maneuver amid rough sea conditions and was evacuated by helicopter to hospital, the service said.

The boat, named Amidala, alerted the maritime rescue centre on the rock-bound Cape Finisterre peninsula on the coast of Galicia shortly before 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Sunday. The crew - a man and a woman, both Belgian nationals - reported damage to the ship's rudder after it was rammed by an unknown number of orcas.

Adverse weather, with winds of up to 35 knots (65 km/h) and waves up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) high, hampered the towing operation, the service said, which took more than five hours until reaching port.

In May, orcas sank a sailing yacht after ramming it on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Although known as killer whales, endangered orcas are part of the dolphin family. They can measure up to eight metres and weigh up to six tonnes as adults.

(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Inti Landauro and Ros Russell)

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Orcas Strike Again

"it’s a shame that we humans are in the middle of this game.", back in action.

Killer whales are back at it again off the coast of Spain — and this time, there's a new theory about their mysterious motivations.

As the  New York Times and other outlets report , a pod of orcas destroyed the rudder of the Amidala, a sailboat with a two-person Belgian crew that became stranded after the attack near Cape Finisterre, a peninsula near Galicia, Spain.

Though the boat didn't sink, the rescue effort was hindered by high winds and waves, resulting in injuries to one of the crew member's hands as the Amidala was being towed. Ultimately, it took four hours to get the boat back to shore.

While far from the most severe, this latest orca ramming again raises questions about the animals' motives as sailors share tips — and apps — with each other on how to survive such attacks.

A previous theory circulated last year suggested that the Iberian Coast's killer whales may be acting out of revenge due to traumatic events in their pasts. Other scientists have suggested, as the  NYT  notes, that the animals may just be bored teenagers goofing off .

Wave Theory

As this latest attack garners headlines, a new research paper out of Spain's Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI) posits that these pods of Iberian orcas are essentially using boats as target practice when teaching their young how to hunt for bluefin tuna, which can be up to 10 feet long and are very fast.

Soon to be published in the journal  Ocean & Coastal Management , the paper points out that although the sailboat-pursuing orcas are generally younger, adult pod members are sometimes seen during these ramming incidents.

This suggests, per the Spanish researchers' line of reasoning, that the older orcas are teaching their young — and with most going straight for the rudders , it seems their lessons are taking hold.

"This is like a training toy," Bruno Díaz López, the institute's chief biologist, explained to the NYT . "It’s a shame that we humans are in the middle of this game, but they are learning."

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