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18 of the funniest orca memes as boat attacks continue

'Orca wars.'

It's all the internet can talk about at the moment as killer whales and now apparently sharks have begun randomly attacking boats and humans and no one really knows why .

Incidents began increasing in May after whales began smashing into the side of boats off the coast of Portugal and near Gibraltar, with a reported consistency of once a day.

It's thought that a white orca named Gladis started the trend which has led to other orcas copying her. However, NBC reports that the rate of interactions between humans and whales has significantly risen since 2020.

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Regardless of whether there is actually a scientific or social reason for this happening or not, the internet simply cannot get enough of the orcas rising up and trying to reclaim the seven seas for themselves and hence a new set of whale-based memes have been born.

Here are some of our favourites.

\u201cFor all the talk of eating the rich, Orcas are the only ones actually taking action and I respect them for it \ud83e\udee1\u201d — John Delmenico (@John Delmenico) 1687233970

\u201cI am a:\n\u26aa male\n\u26aa female\n\u26aa nonbinary\n\ud83d\udd18 orca\n\nInterested in:\n\u26aa men\n\u26aa women\n\u26aa nonbinaries\n\ud83d\udd18 sinking boats in Europe\u201d — Roxi Horror \ud83d\udc80\ud83c\udf38 (@Roxi Horror \ud83d\udc80\ud83c\udf38) 1684548362

\u201cSeeing tweets of orcas, whales, and now sharks attacking boats is crazy but there\u2019s only one sea creature smart enough and malevolent enough to organize this.\u201d — GODSON(^-^) (@GODSON(^-^)) 1687191176

\u201c@CNN They\u2019re beginning to orcanize.\u201d — CNN (@CNN) 1686735907

\u201cApparently the Orcas dropped a song that's wild \ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb5\u201d — No$hu (@No$hu) 1687192454

\u201cThe orcas are recruiting other whales and dolphins to their cause. Let\u2019s go!\u201d — Trap Queen Enthusiast (@Trap Queen Enthusiast) 1686698842

\u201cThat same generation also watched the documentary Blackfish, which really made us furious. Hell yeah we\u2019re on the Orcas side! Go get em Willies!\u201d — AshleyStevens (@AshleyStevens) 1687190320

\u201cI'm SO proud of the orcas that have started fighting back. Can't believe this. We deserve to have our boats rammed frankly\u201d — \ud835\udd0a\ud835\udd2f\ud835\udd26\ud835\udd2a\ud835\udd22\ud835\udd30 (@\ud835\udd0a\ud835\udd2f\ud835\udd26\ud835\udd2a\ud835\udd22\ud835\udd30) 1687113738

\u201cI think the orcas read this tweet \ud83d\ude02\u201d — \u262d\u1d05\u1d00\u1d20\u026a\u1d05 \u1d1b\u029c\u1d07 \u1d07x\u1d0d\u1d0f \u1d04\u1d0f\u1d0d\u1d0d\u1d1c\u0274\u026a\ua731\u1d1b\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@\u262d\u1d05\u1d00\u1d20\u026a\u1d05 \u1d1b\u029c\u1d07 \u1d07x\u1d0d\u1d0f \u1d04\u1d0f\u1d0d\u1d0d\u1d1c\u0274\u026a\ua731\u1d1b\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f) 1686525119

\u201cGladis the orca on her way to destroy another boat and convince other orcas to start war with the humans.\u201d — Grace (@Grace) 1687175827

\u201cOh the Orcas are gonna love this \u201d — Stop Cop City (@Stop Cop City) 1686858530

\u201corcas are taking out private planes now\u201d — Adam (@Adam) 1687196928

\u201cOrcas of the world unite\u201d — Enola Knezevic (@Enola Knezevic) 1686767851

\u201cSharks and Orcas setting aside the rivalry for this one time link up against Humans:\u201d — My Fault (@My Fault) 1687175568

\u201c\u201cWe just think the term \u201ckiller whale\u201d is offensive, and what we\u2019re doing here is\u2014we\u2019re coming together, we\u2019re taking the name back. We\u2019re taking away its power\u201d\u201d — Meech (@Meech) 1687097154

\u201cFOX MULDER: Over 20 reported killer whale attacks in the month of May. The whales worked in tandem. Do you know what this means, Scully?\n\nDANA SCULLY: No. \n\nFOX MULDER: The attacks were orca-strated. Scully? Did you hear me? They were or-\n\nDANA SCULLY: I\u2019ll be in the car, Mulder.\u201d — Mike Beauvais (@Mike Beauvais) 1686608040

\u201cwhat the establishment fears most\u201d — Ali Breland (@Ali Breland) 1687208386

\u201chttps://t.co/dxTLALT8B6\u201d — Logan Dean (@Logan Dean) 1687020600

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Orca memes swarm social media after reports of boat attacks

Where were you when the "orca wars" began?

That's the question posed by many on social media after incidents of orcas seemingly attacking and sinking boats  were reported off the southwestern tip of Europe in May. Since 2020, interactions between orcas and humans has increased, and despite the alleged attacks on vessels, no human injuries or deaths have been reported.

Though the "orca wars" reference a fictional battle between human and killer whale, many have taken their allegiances seriously, posting about being team orca or team human .

“I’m joining the human versus orca wars on the side of the orcas. They’re the buff bodyguards of the oceans,” one person tweeted .

“if you an orca whale reading this, i am on your side. i have always been on your side. i fear the sea and i have never been to marineland. i believe in you,” another user wrote .

The "orca war" memes, which first popped up in May, reached a new pinnacle in mid-June, according to meme database Know Your Meme .

Initially, some reports characterized the behavior as acts of revenge by an orca named "White Gladis," who was wounded and traumatized by a ship. However, experts say the orcas are actually engaging in “fad” behavior, which describes novel but temporary conduct from one whale that can be mimicked by others.

Still, on social media people leaned into the notions that the orcas appeared to be out for revenge. That's how the "orca wars" began trending on Twitter.

"the orcas waited for us to be distracted with overblown fears of AI. begun the great orca wars have," one person wrote .

Some Twitter users, including actor George Takei, joked the animals are "beginning to orcanize."

While some suggested the "revolution continues," other suggested that humans "give them guns."

Others are photoshopping orcas into existing memes.

In one example, a person photoshopped a killer whale head onto a meme of former football player Anthony Adams  wearing a yellow jacket and rubbing his hands together while peering out from behind a tree. That image was posted in response to a news story about a boating competition.

Even Merriam-Webster joined in on the "orca wars." On Wednesday, the dictionary company's social media account shared the definition of the word “saboteur” written over an image of a killer while.

Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.

Orcas are ramming into boats, but experts warn against calling it revenge on humans

Orca behaviour must be separated from human behaviour, researcher says.

Social Sharing

A strange new phenomenon involving sea mammals has captured the public's imagination — and theories that orcas are intentionally targeting humans as an act of revenge have swarmed social media. 

This narrative of an "orca-uprising" stems from our tendency to project human psychology onto intelligent wild animals, according to Justin Gregg, a senior researcher for the Dolphin Communication Project and author of If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity .

"I think we always want to sort of see their behaviour as human-like, which is why people think of it as revenge, because that's a very human-like thing to do," he told The Current guest host, Susan Ormiston.

"We think of other animals as little people, but they live their own complicated lives, which are fundamentally different."

Pods of orcas began toying with yachts in 2020, ramming them, spinning them, and in some cases terrifying those on board. This behaviour is gaining momentum off the southwest coast of Europe and experts believe it's being passed from orca to orca.

Orcas have snapped the rudders of some boats in half and caused at least three sailing vessels to sink, according to the Atlantic Orca Working Group . Their risky behaviour was reported in the North Sea, near Scotland's Shetland Islands, for the first time at the end of June.

In the last three years, there have been more than 400 reports  published by Atlantic Orca Working Group of orcas reacting to boats off the coasts of Portugal and Spain, and near the Strait of Gibraltar. Of the cases dating back to 2022, 142 were categorized as "orca interactions," where an animal touched a boat, and 283 were considered "uneventful passages." 

But yachts have been around for centuries, so why the sudden pique of interest?

Gregg's theory: "It's probably just a random fluke."

For them, snapping off a killer rudder is not really a big deal. It'd be like us snapping a Pop-Tart in half. - Justin Gregg

Trendy new game or violent attack?

Like any fad, Gregg predicts the orcas will emulate this behaviour for a while, but eventually it will fizzle out. When he first clicked on one of the viral "orca attack" videos, he said he was surprised at how "not violent" the encounter was.

"They're sort of lazily swimming up toward the rudder, and they sort of bump against it and it snaps in half," said Gregg. 

"They're enormous animals. So for them, snapping off a killer rudder is not really a big deal. It'd be like us snapping a Pop-Tart in half."

• Video 'Scary moment' as orcas disrupt ocean boat race in latest display of puzzling behaviour
• Orcas ramming boats near Spain no cause for concern in N.L. waters, says expert

Deborah Giles, the science and research director at conservation group Wild Orca, suspects the orcas are simply having a bit of fun, playing with the yachts like enormous bathtub toys. 

"They're interacting with the keels that stick down into the water," she said.

Giles prefers the term "interacting" over "ramming" because the latter implies aggression, and she says orcas have never been known to be hostile or aggressive towards humans in the wild. 

"[They're] just downright curious," she said, likening these interactions to a cat rubbing up against a person's leg. 

"I've literally seen body-surfing killer whales in the wake of these large ships. They're curious animals and they like interacting with their environment."

Mistaking playfulness for violence

Giles is concerned about the possibility of harmful deterrents being used to stop the orcas from damaging expensive vessels. 

She points to the Portuguese government's efforts to minimize these interactions in harmless ways. 

One of the non-lethal deterrents they're currently testing involves oil pipes. When hung from the sides of boats and banged on, these eight foot steel pipes are meant to make a sound the orcas actively avoid because it reminds them of being deterred from a spill area.

• New baby orca spotted with endangered pod off Vancouver Island
• #teamorca gains First Nations support in North America

Another approach people can use if faced with orca-boat contact, said Giles, is stop the forward motion of the boat by turning off the motor or lowering the sails. This will cause the orcas to lose interest and swim away.

"Hopefully enough time goes by where they're just not getting that positive reinforcement from whatever it is that they're liking with this interaction," said Giles.

Gregg said he fears people might start hating orcas if they don't understand the reality of the situation. 

"Hopefully people realize that they are not dangerous and that this behaviour is most likely just play," he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Magan Carty is an associate producer for CBC Radio in Toronto. They've worked for a variety of network programs including The Current, As It Happens, Spark and IDEAS. Magan possesses a deep love of storytelling and comes from a performance background, with over 10 years of experience across Canada as an actor. You can reach them at [email protected]

Produced by Magan Carty, Niza Lyapa Nondo and Willow Smith

Orca attacks on boats are on the rise — and social media has gone wild for it. Check out the best memes here.

• In the conflict between orcas and humans, social media is on the side of the killer whales.
• Memes cheer on the orcas, who have been attacking boats and yachts off the Iberian peninsula.
• White Gladis, a female orca that other orcas may be imitating, is affectionately called a "comrade."

In the conflict between orcas and humans, social media is increasingly on the side of the killer whales.

After a recent increase in incidents of orcas targeting, ramming into, and even sinking some vessels , experts are wondering what exactly has caused this phenomenon.

While most orca interactions with boats are harmless, there has been a spike in aggressive behavior toward boats off the Iberian peninsula since 2020, a biologist recently told LiveScience .

While there have been warnings not to demonize the marine creatures , some social-media users have gone further, championing the orcas' behavior.

—Janel Comeau (@VeryBadLlama) May 20, 2023

Dubbed the "Orca Wars ," the killer whales' online popularity began last month after a report on a theory that the highly-social marine mammals had learned from each other to target boats. In the past month, online searches for the terms "orca" and "killer whales" have increased significantly, according to Google Trends . 

"We are not prepared for an Orca War. We do not have the resources," one popular tweet read . Merriam-Webster dictionary joked , "We, for one, welcome our new Delphinidae Overlords."

'These militant orcas have a clear agenda!'

—devilette¹⁷ (@deviIette) May 27, 2023

Others are happy to fight on the side of the sometimes misunderstood, now-beloved killer whales. "I'm joining the war on orcas, on the side of the orcas," a popular meme reads . 

The memes and discourse began to humorously regard the orca's actions as a revolutionary, dissident movement — with some on social media wryly suggesting, for example, that the orcas look out for billionaire Jeff Bezos' enormous yacht.  

—Stone Cold Jane Austen (@AbbyHiggs) May 20, 2023

After orcas sank a yacht called "Champagne" that was sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar last month, Kady Ruth Ashcraft wrote for Jezebel , "These militant orcas have a clear agenda! Nature is speaking out against the 1%!" 

Framing the sinking of the yachts as a "grassroots organizing," community project, the animals have been cheered as anti-capitalist heroes. Many on Twitter questioned why they still had to go to work , while the orcas were out fighting a noble cause. 

One theory says orcas may be learning this aggressive behavior from one female killer whale named White Gladis, Insider previously reported .

—🖤 Lexi 🖤 (@bi_lex_ual) May 28, 2023

White Gladis may have had a "critical moment of agony," possibly colliding with a boat or being trapped during illegal fishing activities, which traumatized her and caused her to start ramming other boats.

"Nothing heals community trauma like direct action," theorist and author Sophie Lewis, wrote about this news . 

—Emma Devlin 🌊 (@theactualemma) May 27, 2023

Many others referred to White Gladis affectionately as a "comrade," offering their unconditional " solidarity with orca saboteurs ." 

As Insider previously reported , socialist or left-wing memes have become an effective tool for young people and are a particularly popular medium for critiquing life under capitalism.

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

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Orca memes swarm social media after reports of boat attacks

Where were you when the "orca wars" began?

That's the question posed by many on social media after incidents of orcas seemingly attacking and sinking boats were reported off the southwestern tip of Europe in May. Since 2020, interactions between orcas and humans has increased, and despite the alleged attacks on vessels, no human injuries or deaths have been reported.

Though the "orca wars" reference a fictional battle between human and killer whale, many have taken their allegiances seriously, posting about being team orca or team human .

“I’m joining the human versus orca wars on the side of the orcas. They’re the buff bodyguards of the oceans,” one person tweeted .

“if you an orca whale reading this, i am on your side. i have always been on your side. i fear the sea and i have never been to marineland. i believe in you,” another user wrote .

The "orca war" memes, which first popped up in May, reached a new pinnacle in mid-June, according to meme database Know Your Meme .

I am a: ⚪ male ⚪ female ⚪ nonbinary 🔘 orca Interested in: ⚪ men ⚪ women ⚪ nonbinaries 🔘 sinking boats in Europe — Roxi Horror 💀🌸 (@roxiqt) May 20, 2023

Initially, some reports characterized the behavior as acts of revenge by an orca named "White Gladis," who was wounded and traumatized by a ship. However, experts say the orcas are actually engaging in “fad” behavior, which describes novel but temporary conduct from one whale that can be mimicked by others.

Still, on social media people leaned into the notions that the orcas appeared to be out for revenge. That's how the "orca wars" began trending on Twitter.

"the orcas waited for us to be distracted with overblown fears of AI. begun the great orca wars have," one person wrote .

They’re beginning to orcanize. — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 14, 2023

Some Twitter users, including actor George Takei, joked the animals are "beginning to orcanize."

While some suggested the "revolution continues," other suggested that humans "give them guns."

Others are photoshopping orcas into existing memes.

https://t.co/fCZHhIFSbu pic.twitter.com/tLBuOrOzKE — Justin🦩Boldaji (@justinboldaji) June 15, 2023

In one example, a person photoshopped a killer whale head onto a meme of former football player Anthony Adams wearing a yellow jacket and rubbing his hands together while peering out from behind a tree. That image was posted in response to a news story about a boating competition.

Even Merriam-Webster joined in on the "orca wars." On Wednesday, the dictionary company's social media account shared the definition of the word “saboteur” written over an image of a killer while.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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‘Find out how the rich taste’: Why people are cheering for orcas to track down Jeff Bezos’ superyacht

‘orcas eat the rich.’.

Claire Goforth

Posted on May 26, 2023     Updated on May 26, 2023, 7:37 am CDT

A strange tale from the high seas is captivating imaginations all over the planet. Orcas off the Iberian coast have taken to attacking boats, sinking at least three.

A scientist who’s studied the attacks theorizes that the motive may be revenge, according to Live Science. The marine biologist believes that a female orca may have suffered a “critical moment of agony” in an incident with a boat that led her to view seagoing vessels as enemies and attack them. They think she’s now taught other orcas to follow suit.

The internet is fascinated by the phenomenon. And they have an idea for whose boat the killer whales should attack next: Jeff Bezos’ brand new yacht.

The billionaire Amazon founder recently set sail on his superyacht, which cost $500 million and took five years to build. Last week, Page Six reported that Bezos and his fiancée were making their way along the Spanish coast. Three orcas sunk a yacht off that coast on May 4.

The proximity of Bezos to the orcas, coupled with loathing for him specifically and billionaires generally, has inspired a bit of a meme.

People really, really want those orcas to attack his superyacht, the Koru.

One person wrote , “The orcas have prepared the army. Rudder attack at dawn.”

“How do we communicate to orcas and politely explain to them all the benefits of destroying Jeff Bezos’ yacht while he and his closest and richest friends are on it and in the middle of the ocean without any access to help,” wondered @NormalArabGirl.

While the memes about the killer whales sinking the Koru are most likely in jest, the sentiment behind them is real.

Wealth disparity has increased significantly in recent years, concentrating resources in the hands of a tiny fraction of the world’s population. Perhaps counterintuitively, this disparity accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Inequality.org reported that America’s roughly 700 billionaires—including Bezos—cumulatively controlled four times more wealth than the 165 million poorest people in the country. “In 1990, the situation was reversed—billionaires were worth $240 billion and the bottom 50% had $380 billion in combined wealth,” Inequality.org added.

This disparity has contributed to the growing resentment of billionaires, many of whom pay a far smaller share of their income in taxes than the average American.

The orca attacks have inspired people to vent their frustration at billionaires by suggesting the sea creatures target Bezos.

“I just hope the orcas find Jeff Bezos’ super yacht and get to find out how the rich taste,” a Twitter user commented .

“I will join the revolution if the Orcas take down the Bezos Yacht,” @vanweezer tweeted .

Similar suggestions are all over the web.

A BlueSky user even renamed their account “Orcas Eat the Rich.”

Please orcas do your thing to the bezos superyacht 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/YD1yg25CEP — Sarah Duyer (@SarahDuyer) May 20, 2023

*researching how to lead Orcas to Jeff Bezos’ yacht* https://t.co/udR8GSLYvJ — Chris @wischofsky.bsky.social (@wischofsky) May 23, 2023

Me, showing the orcas to bezos mega yacht pic.twitter.com/cZndOV5zYD — Corporate Criminal Director, Jo (@criminaljo) May 21, 2023

Pssst… Hey, Orcas! Bezos's new super yacht is in Spain. Just saying. If you're feeling frisky… or enraged, maybe channel it? 🐳⛵️ https://t.co/SQ2LXlbuAj — alisa jones :: gotham girl (@iamgothamgirl) May 23, 2023

The odds of the orcas attacking Bezos’ superyacht are extremely low. But some people’s hopes remain high.

Share this article

Claire Goforth is an investigative reporter, lawyer, and the head of the Daily Dot’s Hi-Res division. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Al Jazeera, the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, and more.

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Orcas Started Attacking Boats, And Twitter Erupted With These Memes Of Support

If you thought the sharks were the scariest part of the ocean, we’ve got some news for you: orcas have started attacking boats in an attempt to sink them. Thankfully, no humans have been injured in these “orca wars”  that started in 2020. So, it makes these orca memes a little bit more amusing.

Scientists aren’t totally sure what’s driving this trend, but some think it may be response to past trauma . The thought is that one orca had a bad encounter with a boat or net, so it taught other orcas to attack boats as an act of revenge. A petty queen? We can’t help but stan.

The Funniest Orca Memes

1. don’t remember seeing these options on our tax forms .

2. And to all a good night!

3. We’d use this notebook.

4. He’s about to blow up that Slack chat .

5. Pun level : 10/10

6. Pun meme level: 11/10

7. Tears sold separately? There LEGO goes with another upcharge.

8. They are the vigilantes we didn’t know we needed.

9. Breaking news!

10. Did she stutter?

11. Shakespeare who?

12. Great. More lyrics to this song we’ll never remember.

13. Let’s go, girls!

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Orca Gangs Are Attacking Yachts and the Memes are Killer

Two weeks ago, a sailor was stranded on the island of Gibraltar after a crew of killer whales attacked his yacht and managed to rip off its rudders. This was just one incident in a string of similar attacks, and although no one can say for sure what is causing these animals to act up, many are theorizing that it might have something to do with a whale called White Gladis—a traumatized matriarch who has possibly been teaching young pods of whales how to rip rudders off of boats. Could White Gladis be orca -strating the attacks against luxury vessels? Does she know anything about the whereabouts of the missing Titanic submersible ? There's a lot to unpack, but one thing is for sure—the internet is Team Orca all the way, and the proof is in the memes. The jokes really took off after Atlantic staff writer Jacob Stern wrote a piece entitled, "Killer Whales Are Not Our Friends (Stop rooting for the orcas ramming boats.)" It didn't take long for nearly all of Twitter to drag Mr. Stern's name through the reef and even suggest the piece was secretly written by either a boat or a leopard seal. We've collected some of the most killer orca memes that would trigger the likes of Captain Ahab.

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Why orcas keep sinking boats

Scientists have some theories why killer whales have seriously damaged boats about a dozen times this year off the coast of Spain and Portugal

In the early morning Thursday, killer whales smashed into a sailboat off the southern coast of Spain, puncturing its hull and damaging its rudder. Spanish authorities raced to save the sinking vessel, according to Reuters , but it was in such disrepair it had to be towed ashore.

It wasn’t the first attack by an orca, or killer whale, off the coast of Spain and Portugal this year. And it may not be the last time one chews a rudder or crashes into a hull. Normally, killer whales aren’t considered dangerous to humans. But pods of killer whales have done serious damage to boats in the region about a dozen times already this year, according to the Grupo de Trabajo Orca Atlántica, or GTOA, a research group studying the region’s killer whales, part of a rise in attacks first observed in 2020.

Stories and videos of the attacks widely shared on social media have turned the orca into a meme. After the marine mammals struck some fancy yachts, some observers are calling the strikes concentrated around the Strait of Gibraltar, where the whales congregate in the spring and summer, an act of anti-capitalist solidarity from “orca comrades” and “orca saboteurs.” For others, the series of strikes is eerily similar to a scene in James Cameron’s latest “Avatar” movie , “The Way of the Water.”

So what is happening? The scientists studying the whales themselves aren’t entirely sure, either. But they have two leading ideas:

Theory No. 1: The orcas are playing around

Closely related to bottlenose dolphins, orcas are highly intelligent and curious marine mammals. Using a series of underwater pulses and whistles, the whales communicate with such sophistication that pods form their own dialects and parents teach their young hunting methods that are passed along for generations.

After learning a new behavior, juvenile orcas often keep repeating it ad nauseam. (In that way, they are a lot like human youngsters.) Playing around is just a part of learning how to be an apex predator.

That matches the pattern of attacks whale scientists have witnessed this year, according to Alfredo López Fernandez, a researcher at the University of Aveiro in Portugal working with GTOA.

In this case, the behavior is “self-induced,” López Fernandez said, and not caused directly by some outside (i.e., human) provocation. “Which means that they invent something new and repeat it,” he added.

But there’s another potential motivation that sounds straight out of “Moby Dick.”

Theory No. 2: The orcas want vengeance

Orcas off the Iberian Coast like to follow fishing vessels to snag bluefin tuna before fishermen can reel them in, putting the aquatic mammals at risk of being struck or entangled. Scientists have seen killer whales in those waters with fishing lines hanging from their bodies.

So it is possible, López Fernandez said, an orca had a bad run-in with a boat in the past, and is now teaching other killer whales how to attack vessels as well. The team suspects a female adult named White Gladis may be the one doing so.

López Fernandez emphasized we don’t have enough information to know the real reason behind the attacks yet. Even assuming the second theory is true, “we don’t know what that triggering stimulus could have been,” he said.

With only 39 orcas counted in 2011, the Iberian orca subpopulation is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The impact that entanglements and boat strikes are having on all sorts of whales and dolphins around the world underscores that humans are a bigger threat to them than they are to us.

“All this has to make us reflect on the fact that human activities, even in an indirect way, are at the origin of this behavior,” López Fernandez said.

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Whales Have Attacked Plenty of Boats Before. This Time Is Different.

White gladis and her crew are coming for your yachts..

Over the weekend, the internet found a new hero: anti-capitalist, direct-action-taking killer whales. Following the publication of a LiveScience article reporting that killer whales, or orcas, around the Iberian Peninsula had started sinking boats and appeared to be “teaching others to do the same,” social media—Twitter in particular—ran with the story.

The popular satirical “WhaleFact” account tweeted : “Humans have fucked around long enough, it is now time to find out.” Tweets picked up on the suggestion that whales targeted yachts and other luxury vessels, hoping the rogue whales might seek out billionaire Amazon owner Jeff Bezos next. Users referenced “ direct action ,” “ solidarity with orca saboteurs ,” and “ grassroots organizing ”—and penned some (terrible) puns, à la orca-strating and orca-nizing . References to “ anti-colonial struggle ” and Land Back —“ ocean back ”—also appeared. Both an Amazon labor organizer and a New York Times columnist described the whales as “comrades.” Memes and jokes abounded; one user adapted the lyrics of the song “Bitch” to read: “I’m a bitch/ I’m an Orca/ Sinking boats/ Just off Majorca.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s Twitter account, never one to miss out on a moment, got involved, posting that MW’s definition of orca did “not yet” include “BOAT DESTROYER,” but that they “welcome our new Delphinidae Overlords.”

Although the yacht-sinking whales inspired a fun and raucous moment, that moment was also bittersweet. Scientists quoted in the LiveScience coverage hypothesize that a “critical moment of agony” (perhaps a collision or entanglement) traumatized matriarch White Gladis and led her to start attacking similar vessels—and others to follow suit. Whether the behavior is spreading through imitation or intentional teaching, its adoption resonates with existing knowledge about orcas: They are intelligent creatures who learn, adapt, and may even mourn ; they can go through cultural fads (including a rather charming one in which one whale prompted others to start wearing salmon hats ); and they live in tight-knit matriarchal social structures.

Reports of orcas attacking yachts and other vessels are not new, even in recent times; similar stories popped up in the news in 2022 and 2020 . These “attacks” on boats also have a longer history across whale and dolphin species, not just orcas. A classic example is, of course, the events of Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick, and of the wreck of the whaleship Essex, which partly inspired Melville. But what immediately came to mind for me, as the internet fell in love with White Gladis and her crew, was another whale: the gray whale. Killer and gray whales are typically pitted against each other as foes because the former preys on the latter. Yet gray whales themselves have a history of being taken for sea monsters, similar to the killer whale’s. Gray whales are infamous as “devil-fish”—a nickname they acquired for their unusually ferocious responses to mid-19 th -century Yankee whalers’ attacks in the Mexican lagoons where they gave birth. These “devil-fish” rammed boats, injured whalers, and inspired fear among whaling crews. As the story goes, mid-20 th -century protections allowed the “devil-fish” to become the “friendly whale” by the 1970s—a gentle giant that approaches small boats and allows people to touch it. In other words, the idea has been that humans changed their behaviors (from destruction to care), and whales responded accordingly.

In my own work as an environmental historian, I found that this “ devil-fish to friendly whale ” arc doesn’t quite hold up to historical scrutiny. Instead, friendly whales appeared prior to this apparent transition—and often at the same time as devil-fishes. Like the contemporary orcas, past gray whales who struck boats could spark a wide array of human stories—from tales of vengeful monsters to tragedies or pitiful accidents. Some of the stories people have told about these incidents that I’ve encountered in the course of my research border on absurd: An 1899 report of “sociable” whales that approached yachts said they mistook the yachts for potential mates. Another from the same era told of a gray whale who followed a commercial vessel for miles on end, and who purportedly interpreted the ship’s crew spraying it with bullets as “love taps.”

Across a wide range of time periods and geographies, various whale species have altered their behaviors in relation to changing human activities. For example, a recent, widely covered study suggests that sperm whales in the 19 th -century North Pacific shared information about Yankee whaling among themselves, changing their behaviors to avoid those whalers. According to environmental historian Bathsheba Demuth, bowhead whales in the Bering Sea, which were initially more docile than other whales, began to avoid Yankee whalers in the mid-19 th century; a sea shanty from around that time claimed “the devil has got into bowhead whales.” (But even as the whales got away from those whalers and disappeared into labyrinthine ice, Indigenous hunters across the Bering Strait continued successfully hunting bowheads.)

Other examples from the historical record include shifts among right whales in response to commercial whaling in the early 19 th -century South Pacific, the influences of whalers and bowhead whales on each other during an era of climate change in the 17 th -century Atlantic Arctic, and stories about contemporary narwhals evading satellite surveillance. These examples show how whales are not static objects affected by human history, but rather active participants who change alongside shifts in political, social, and cultural conditions.

Whales change their behaviors in relationship with humans’ social changes, and alongside these shifts come shifts in human perception and interpretation of those behaviors and changes. Often, when people describe changing human attitudes toward whales, they tell a black-and-white story: Either people save, watch, and respect the whales, or we eat, kill, and fear them. The story has a historical trajectory: We used to exploit and fear whales, and now we respect them as intelligent, social beings. Respecting whales becomes mutually exclusive with fearing whales; eating whales becomes mutually exclusive with loving whales. This is the version of events that emerged during the Save the Whales movement in the 1970s, and in the context of the broader mainstream Western environmental movement, and it’s the version that continues to permeate public discussions of whales today. From the transformation of the blackfish into Shamu to the devil-fish’s evolution into the friendly whale, you can find this story everywhere.

But many environmentalists, like me, have come to feel like this way of thinking about interactions between humanity and nature is limited and unproductive. Remember the “We Are the Virus” meme that emerged early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in which a universalized and homogenized humanity was represented as a virus destroying all other life on earth? In “our” absence, nature was said to be healing —as demonstrated, in the first instance, by reports of dolphins returning to the canals of Venice. The later memeification of this idea interestingly, and accurately, critiqued its absurdity, misanthropy, and inaccuracy. We Are the Virus environmentalism—the sincere kind—is an outgrowth of a type of thought that sees humans as always separate from, and dangerous to, an external Nature. If you think that, you may also tend to view the future in similar either/or ways—either we are doomed to destroy the rest of the planet and ourselves along with it, or we will successfully achieve a level of technological prowess that allows us to manage planetary change effectively.

This boat-attacking-whale-comrades moment feels different—and exciting. Part of what makes these boat-sinking whales into anti-capitalist allies is their choice of targets. Much of the coverage and response focuses on the whales’ attacking yachts in a popular European vacationing location. These yachts symbolize excesses of wealth under capitalism. This story simply wouldn’t have the same appeal or political resonance if the whales weren’t targeting symbols of wealth, waste, and opulence.

The unique combination here, then, is that this orca attack moment embraces a less universalizing environmentalist perspective. Although there certainly is some bemoaning of “humans” deserving the whales’ attacks as their due comeuppance, what I find exciting about these responses is how many of them don’t fall into the “We Are the Virus” trap. Many of the responses connect the plight of killer whales to social, cultural, and political issues of inequality, land rights, labor rights, capitalism, imperialism, and uneven and exploitative development. Yes, some of this is in jest—but the jokes, I would argue, aren’t entirely joking.

Animals are doing weird and funny stuff as our shared planet changes rapidly. From whales showing up halfway across the world from where they should be, to what anthropologist Nayanika Mathur calls “ crooked cats ”—tigers, lions, and leopards which defy standard expectations of their species by preying on humans and our companion and livestock species—transforming to become more devilish in response to joint pressures of capitalism and climate change, we should expect the unexpected about nonhuman life. This moment of celebration offers a window into what it might look like to move out of the idea that whales can be either dangerous monsters or priceless objects worthy of protection. Maybe joining the orca war can be an act of radical solidarity with both other people and other beings—if we orca-nize carefully.

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Orcas sank a yacht off Spain — the latest in a slew of such 'attacks' in recent years

Scott Neuman

Killer whales are pictured during a storm in the fjord of Skjervoy in 2021 off the coast of northern Norway. Researchers say orcas are stepping up "attacks" on yachts along Europe's Iberian coast. Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Killer whales are pictured during a storm in the fjord of Skjervoy in 2021 off the coast of northern Norway. Researchers say orcas are stepping up "attacks" on yachts along Europe's Iberian coast.

The crew of a sinking yacht was rescued off the coast of Spain this week after a pod of orcas apparently rammed the vessel – the latest "attack" by the marine mammals in the area that has left scientists stumped, several boats at the bottom of the ocean and scores more damaged.

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

The encounter on Sunday between an unknown number of orcas, also known as "killer whales," and the 49-foot sailing yacht Alboran Cognac occurred on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow passage linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean where the majority of such incidents have occurred in recent years.

The Alboran Cognac's crew said they felt sudden blows on the hull and that the boat began taking on water. They were rescued by a nearby oil tanker, but the sailboat, left to drift, later went down.

The sinking brings the number of vessels sunk – mostly sailing yachts – to at least five since 2020. Hundreds of less serious encounters resulting in broken rudders and other damage, Alfredo López Fernandez, a coauthor of a 2022 study in the journal Marine Mammal Science, told NPR late last year.

As NPR first reported in 2022, many scientists who study orca behavior believe these incidents — in which often one or more of the marine mammals knock off large chunks of a sailboat's rudder — are not meant as attacks, but merely represent playful behavior.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Catamaran Guru(@catamaranguru)

Some marine scientists have characterized these encounters over the years as a "fad," implying that the animals will eventually lose interest and return to more typical behavior.

The study co-authored by López Fernandez, for example, indicated two years ago that orcas were stepping up the frequency of their interactions with sailing vessels in and around the Strait of Gibraltar.

Some researchers think it's merely playful behavior

One hypothesis put forward by Renaud de Stephanis, president and coordinator at CIRCE Conservación Information and Research, a research group based in Spain, is that orcas like the feel of the water jet produced by a boat's propeller.

A picture taken on May 31, 2023, shows the rudder of a vessel damaged by killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar and taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain. Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A picture taken on May 31, 2023, shows the rudder of a vessel damaged by killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar and taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain.

"What we think is that they're asking to have the propeller in the face," de Stephanis told NPR in 2022. "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."

In one encounter last year, Werner Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht that his vessel, Champagne, was approached by "two smaller and one larger orca" off Gibraltar.

"The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side," he said.

The Spanish coast guard rescued Schaufelberger and his crew, towing Champagne to the Spanish port of Barbate, but the vessel sank before reaching safety.

A worker cleans Champagne, a vessel that sank after an attack by orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar and was taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain, on May 31, 2023. Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A worker cleans Champagne, a vessel that sank after an attack by orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar and was taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain, on May 31, 2023.

The encounters could be a response to past trauma

López Fernandez believes that a female known as White Gladis, who leads the group of around 40 animals, may have had a traumatizing encounter with a boat or a fishing net. In an act of revenge, she is teaching her pod-mates how to carry out attacks with her encouragement, he believes.

"The orcas are doing this on purpose, of course, we don't know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day," López Fernandez told Live Science .

It's an intriguing possibility, Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute , told NPR last year.

"I definitely think orcas are capable of complex emotions like revenge," she said. "I don't think we can completely rule it out."

However, Shields said she remained skeptical of the "revenge" hypothesis. She said that despite humans having "given a lot of opportunities for orcas to respond to us in an aggressive manner," there are no other examples of them doing so.

Deborah Giles, the science and research director at Wild Orca, a conservation group based in Washington state, was also cautious about the hypothesis when NPR spoke to her last year. She pointed out that killer whale populations in waters off Washington "were highly targeted" in the past as a source for aquariums. She said seal bombs – small charges that fishers throw into the water in an effort to scare sea lions away from their nets – were dropped in their path while helicopters and boats herded them into coves.

"The pod never attacked boats after that," she said.

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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After Second Death This Year, Russian Aquarium Renounces Use of Captured Orcas

In the wake of two young captive orcas dying so far this year at the Moskvarium Aquarium in Moscow, the facility has admitted that keeping captured whales in concrete tanks is fundamentally unworkable. 

On June 23rd, the aquarium announced that Nord, a 16-year-old male orca, who was captured in 2013, had died of an acute peptic ulcer.

Photo of Nord by Oxana Federova

Only five months earlier, on January 8th, it posted that Narnia, a 17-year-old female orca taken from the ocean several years ago had died of an acute volvulus (the abnormal twisting of a portion of the gastrointestinal tract).

Naya, a 12-year-old female, is now the one remaining orca at the aquarium.

These latest two deaths are part of a worldwide pattern of illness and death that characterizes the lives of captive orcas – whether wild-caught or captive-born – in concrete tanks. In the wild, male orcas live to an average age of 30 (maximum 50-60 years) and females live to an average age of 46 (maximum 80-90). Most captive orcas do not live beyond their early 20s.

Following the passing of Nord, the Moskvarium admitted publicly that it is impossible to close the gap between what orcas need to thrive and what life in a tank is like for them. It is impossible to close the gap between what orcas need to thrive and what life in a tank is like for them

“Despite the high level of competence of the center’s experts … it is extremely difficult to approximate the artificial conditions for keeping large marine mammals to natural,” it wrote in a statement. The facility has called for a “complete ban on catching marine mammals for educational and cultural purposes.”

The Moskvarium notes that its Center for Oceanography and Marine Biology took part in the development of a law that comes into effect in Russia in September 2024 and provides for a complete ban on “the capture of marine mammals for cultural and educational purposes.”

Photo of Narnia by Moskvarium

The decision to end catching orcas and other marine mammals for entertainment is certainly laudable but it does not ban the breeding of these animals in captivity. Science tells us that captive-born orcas have just as poor, if not poorer, well-being in the tanks as those who were born in the ocean.

The aquarium also notes that in 2019, its experts participated in the rescue and return to the ocean of the 97 orcas and beluga whales who were being held at the infamous “whale jail” near Vladivostok after being captured for sale to entertainment parks in China. (The Whale Sanctuary Project also worked with the Russian government and with Russian animal protection groups. See our posts on Whale Aid Russia.)

The question now is what will happen to Naya, the remaining orca at the Moskvarium who is being kept under conditions that, for a highly social and intelligent mammal, are inhumane. The stress of being the sole individual in a highly artificial environment after experiencing the deaths of two other orcas could lead to her demise, too.

Just as the Miami Seaquarium is now working with the nonprofit Friends of Toki toward transferring its lone orca Tokitae to a sanctuary environment, the Whale Sanctuary Project and our colleagues in the wildlife sanctuary community stand ready to work with the Moskvarium toward determining what are the next best steps for Naya to ensure that she has the highest possible quality of life so that she doesn’t follow the same path as Narnia and Nord.

Title photo of orca Nord by Moskvarium.

© 2024 The Whale Sanctuary Project. All Rights Reserved.

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