Tuesday, 08 November 2022, 08:51
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A group of killer whales breached the bottom of a boat and sank it off the coast of Portugal. Marine predators made a huge hole in it, then ripped off part of the rudder, Newsweek writes.
On November 1, the French ship sank. At the time of the accident, four passengers were on board, sailing 22 km off the coast of the Portuguese city of Viana do Castelo.
Later, one of those aboard told reporters that he heard a loud noise at the stern of the ship, after which the entire ship started shaking. Then the passengers realized that the boat was surrounded by a herd of at least six killer whales, which literally appeared out of nowhere and started biting the rudder and rocking the ship.
“I was hoping they would play for a while and maybe they wouldn’t damage the boat so much,” said the victim.
The killer whales continued to bite the boat until a snap was heard. Subsequently, the crew noticed a huge hole in the tail, where water began to enter. The crew gave an SOS signal and a nearby Swedish schooner came to the rescue.
“They kept attacking, the rattle of the boat got louder and louder and I really understood that they decided to destroy it completely,” said one of the victims.
Eventually the whales left the boat and continued swimming. One of them had the rudder of the boat in his mouth.
Another ship sailed to the crash site and took the French on board. Nobody was hurt.
This is the second boat to sink after a whale attack. In July, they sank another sailboat off the Portuguese city of Sines.
Attacks by killer whales have been observed off the coasts of Spain and Portugal since 2020.
Kerstin Bilgmann, a biologist and researcher at Macquarie University in Australia, explained that this is rather unusual behavior, but killer whales are intelligent animals that actively play and develop new skills.
“In the past, killer whales, for example, helped humans hunt other whales,” explained the scientist.
