Sea sailors beware! Off the Portuguese and Spanish coast, from Galicia to Gibraltar, orcas commit organized attacks on sailing boats. Scientists are puzzled.
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Stir
The witness statements are alarming. In the last two months, two sailboats have lost parts of their rudders. At least one crew member was injured when a boat was rammed and several boats were seriously damaged. The culprits? Killer whales, the largest black and white colored members of the dolphin family. Killer whales, also called killer whales, have formidable sizes. Males can grow to 8 meters in length and weigh 10,000 pounds. They are extremely strong, intelligent and hunt sea lions, seals and other mammals including young whales in teams.
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Out of control
The latest attack occurred last Friday afternoon at Corunã, off the north-west coast of Spain. Halcyon Yachts was on its way to Great Britain with an 11-meter boat belonging to one of its customers when an orca rammed the stern more than 15 times. “The boat became rudderless and had to be towed back to port in Spain,” Halcyon Yachts owner Pete Green told British newspaper The Guardian.
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Curious
On the same day, warnings were also made for groups of killer whales off the coast of the Spanish city of Vigo, where there were also two incidents involving killer whales recently. On August 30, a French-flagged sailboat reported to the Spanish Coast Guard that it was being attacked by orcas. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish yacht Mirfak lost part of its rudder after a collision with killer whales. According to biologists who follow a small group of orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar, orcas are very curious, so they often follow boats up close and sometimes even touch the rudder blade. But never with as much force and energy as in the latest incidents.
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Quote “There is little chance that two groups of orcas will exhibit this highly unusual behavior
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Stress
The Spanish art guard warns sailing ships to ‘keep their distance’. Given the latest reports of the last two months, this will not be easy because the orcas are chasing boats in an ‘extremely unusual way’ according to scientists. It is unclear why the animals do so, but it could be stress from orcas that would be threatened in their existence as a group. Marine biologist Ruth Esteban, who has intensively studied the orcas near Gibraltar, assumes that they are one and the same group of orcas. “There is little chance that two groups of orcas will exhibit this highly unusual behavior,” said the scientist.
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‘Whistle noises’
The experiences of the attacked crews are no less serious. On July 29, at Cape Trafalgar, Victoria Morris’s 40-foot boat was circled by nine orcas. They rammed the hull for more than an hour, turning the boat 180 degrees and breaking the rudder. During the attacks, the animals exchanged loud ‘whistling noises’. “It felt like an organized attack,” said Morris. A week earlier, in the same area, the crew of another boat had the same experience. That incident lasted 50 minutes. The boat was rammed so hard that “the helmsman’s shoulder nearly dislocated,” said the captain.
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Quote “It felt like an organized attack
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‘Lifted’
The night before, Beverley Harris and Kevin Large felt their 12-meter yacht ‘being lifted’. The boat came to a sudden stop, was turned a few times. A little further on, Nick Giles had the same experience with his yacht Moody. “I suddenly heard a huge blow,” said Giles. His boat also turned 180 degrees. He too felt his boat being lifted. After fifteen minutes it became quiet again. The controls were damaged.
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Orcas often seek the attention of humans.
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