orcas sink a sailboat

Orcas sank a third boat. Scientists think these 'brutal' attacks may be trauma-driven.

• Orcas keep attacking sailboats off the coasts of Spain and Morocco.
• Earlier this month two attacks were reported where one ended up sinking the boat.
• Scientists can't explain the attacks but one leading theory points to a single, traumatized orca.

Orcas are targeting sailboats near the Iberian Peninsula, and nobody knows why.

Most of the attacks involve multiple orcas ramming the boat but it remains afloat. In several cases, however, the animals have managed to sink entire boats.

The third case of orcas sinking a boat happened earlier this month off the Iberian coast, LiveScience reported .

"The attacks were brutal"

Skipper Werner Schaufelberger was sailing at night off the coast of Spain when three orcas started to attack his boat.

"At first I thought we had hit something. But then I quickly realized that it was orcas attacking the ship," Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht .

"The attacks were brutal. There were two smaller and one larger orca. The two little ones shook the rudder while the big one kept running and then rammed the ship from the side with full force," he added.

The Spanish coast guard rescued Schaufelberger and the rest of the crew and towed the boat to port, where it sank right before reaching port.

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It's important to note that the vast majority of interactions with orcas don't end with a sunk boat. These attacks near the Iberian Peninsula may be due to a single, traumatized orca that has taught this behavior to other, fellow orcas, LiveScience reported.

"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," biologist Alfredo López Fernandez at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and representative of the Atlantic Orca Working Group, told LiveScience. 

Other orca attacks

Schaufenlberger wasn't the only victim this month. On May 2, Greg Blackburn thought his boat was hitting rough waves when the thumps began as he sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar near Tangier, Morocco, according to 9News .

But as the jolts continued, and the rudder seemed to resist his steering, Blackburn looked down and saw two orcas repeatedly ramming his boat, and soon two more joined in.

"There's not a lot you can do at that point," Blackburn, a sailor from the UK, told 9News. "After reading reports and knowing what has been going on, just thought we were in for a ride now."

Another pair of notable orca attacks occurred last July, when a pod of orcas struck a sailboat off the coast of Portugal and, just hours later, targeted another vessel in the same area, according to reports.

Orca attacks are becoming more common

A collaboration of researchers has recorded more than 200 reports of "interactions," where orcas approach or touch a vessel, along Portugal and Spain's Iberian Peninsula since 2020.

Insider previously reported in 2020 about a series of aggressive actions by orcas along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. At the time, scientists had different theories: The killer whales could be acting out of curiosity, mischief, territoriality, or trauma.

López Fernandez suspects that one, traumatized female orca may be to blame. Her name is White Gladis and, according to LiveScience, she may have experienced a collision with a boat or entrapment during illegal fishing. The incident changed something in Gladis.

"That traumatized orca is the one that started this behavior of physical contact with the boat," López Fernandez told LiveScience.

Whatever the reason for the growing number of attacks — whether it's Gladis or something else — if you encounter an orca in the wild there are some guidelines for what to do:

• Keep a low profile on deck. Don't excite the orcas.
• Contact authorities on VHF 16, or by phone on 112

If the orcas ram your boat, secure yourself to something because the last thing you should ever do is enter the water when orcas are nearby.

Correction: May 9, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of the 200 orca incidents reported since 2020, as well as the origin of that statistic. Those reports were of interactions between orcas and boats, not necessarily attacks. And that number comes from a collaboration of scientists collecting reports, not from local media outlets.

This post has been updated with new information. It was originally published on August 13, 2022.

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

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A pod of orcas has sunk a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar

Ayana Archie

A pair of orcas swim off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 2018. Brian Gisborne/AP hide caption

A pair of orcas swim off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 2018.

For 45 minutes, the crew of the Grazie Mamma felt like they were under attack from below. A pod of orcas had zeroed in on the yacht's rudder as it made its way through the Strait of Gibraltar last week, and rammed it repeatedly, "causing major damage and leakage," according to the company that operated the boat.

Rescuers were able to save the crew and return them safely to port in Tanger-Med on the coast of Morocco. Their vessel, though, sank into the sea.

"This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us," read a statement posted to Facebook by Morskie Mile , the Warsaw-based touring company that operated the boat. "Very good memories will be transferred to Grazie Mamma II. Love of the sea always wins and friendships remain with us."

The company said it is working to ensure its upcoming trips to the Canary Islands go on without a hitch.

Last week's incident was the latest in a string of recent "attacks" by orcas in the waters separating southern Europe and northern Africa — encounters that have left researchers scratching their heads.

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

Since 2020, there have been about 500 encounters between orcas and boats, Alfredo López Fernandez, a coauthor of a 2022 study in the journal Marine Mammal Science, told NPR earlier this year. At least three boats have sunk, though there is no record of an orca killing a human in the wild.

Scientists have been trying to pinpoint the cause of the behavior.

One theory among researchers is they're just playing around. Other researchers say it may be that the whales like the feel of the rudder.

"What we think is that they're asking to have the propeller in the face," said Renaud de Stephanis, president and coordinator at CIRCE Conservación Information and Research in Spain, in an interview with NPR last year. When they encounter a sailboat without its engine on, "they get kind of frustrated and that's why they break the rudder," de Stephanis said.

Another theory is that the behavior may be some sort of act of revenge due to possibly traumatic , previous encounters with fishing boats.

Revenge of the killer whales? Recent boat attacks might be driven by trauma

"I definitely think orcas are capable of complex emotions like revenge," Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute previously told NPR. Shields said she does not think "we can completely rule it out," even if she was not entirely convinced herself.

Deborah Giles, the science and research director at conservation group Wild Orca, says pods in other areas, such as near Washington state, have been targeted by humans, but haven't shown a pattern of ramming boats.

How wildlife officials saved a humpback whale found 'hogtied' to a 300-pound crab pot

Which underscores why researchers say it's difficult to draw any conclusions from the interactions documented to date. In an open letter published this summer, 30 scientists cautioned against "projecting narratives onto these animals," writing that "In the absence of further evidence, people should not assume they understand the animals' motivations."

Correction Nov. 7, 2023

An earlier version of this story misstated the yacht's name, Grazie Mamma, as Grazie Mamma II.

Orcas Sink Another Boat in the Strait of Gibraltar

The crew is safe, but the marine mammals did so much damage to the Polish sailing yacht that it couldn’t make it back to port

Daily Correspondent

The orcas are at it again : A pod of the black-and-white marine mammals sank a sailing yacht off the coast of Morocco in the Strait of Gibraltar last week. This marks the fourth vessel orcas have sunk in the region within the last two years, according to Live Science ’s Harry Baker.

On the afternoon of October 31, orcas repeatedly rammed into the Grazie Mamma , a vessel owned by the Polish cruise company Morskie Mile, according to a translated Facebook post from the company. The animals hit the rudder for 45 minutes, causing damage to the boat that filled it with water.

In response, the captain, crew members, search and rescue personnel, port tugboats and the Moroccan Navy worked together to try to bring the damaged yacht safely into port at Tanger-Med. But despite their efforts, the ship sank near the port’s entrance. Fortunately, the crew is “safe, unharmed and sound,” per the Facebook post.

The Grazie Mamma ’s demise is just one of several recent, headline-grabbing incidents involving orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow waterway that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The strait is flanked by Spain to the north and Morocco to the south.

Researchers and sailors alike are baffled by the disruptive behavior of the orcas that inhabit the strait, which are categorized as a distinct—and critically endangered—subpopulation . For the last three years, several members of this group have been colliding with vessels and, in some instances, causing so much damage the boats sink.

Since 2020, scientists have recorded more than 500 interactions between orcas and ships off the Iberian peninsula,  Live Science ’s Sascha Pare reported in May. That represents a small fraction of the total vessels that pass through the strait, but the unusual incidents have garnered worldwide attention nonetheless. The so-called killer whales have become social media stars, with memes and even merchandise suggesting they’re coordinating an “ orca uprising .”

Scientists don’t know for sure why the orcas are targeting vessels, but they have urged onlookers to avoid assigning human attributes to the creatures, and especially to refrain from framing their actions as retaliation, reports the Washington Post ’s Dino Grandoni.

“We believe this narrative inappropriately projects human motivations onto these whales, and we are concerned that perpetuating it will lead to punitive responses by mariners or managers,” a group of 35 scientists wrote in an open letter this August.

Orcas are highly social animals, and in the past, they have periodically adopted short-lived fads, such as wearing dead salmon on their heads like hats. While the vessel strikes are persisting longer than a typical fad, they might disappear just as quickly as they began, the scientists wrote. But overall, it appears unlikely the creatures are behaving maliciously or seeking revenge on humans.

“I just don’t really see it as an agonistic activity,” said Deborah Giles , a marine biologist at the University of Washington and director of the conservation research organization Wild Orca, to the Los Angeles Times ’ Susanne Rust earlier this year.

So far, the behavior has mostly been isolated to the group inhabiting the waters off the Iberian peninsula—though, this summer, one incident did occur more than 2,000 miles away near Scotland.

One theory scientists have for the behavior is that orcas are simply having fun—they see boat rudders, then use their noses to push them until they snap.

“They’re pushing, pushing, pushing—boom! It’s a game,”  Renaud de Stephanis , a scientist who leads the marine research group Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE), told  BBC Future ’s Sophie Hardach in June. “Imagine a kid of 6, 7 years, with a weight of three tonnes. That’s it, nothing less, nothing more. If they wanted to wreck the boat, they would break it in ten minutes’ time.”

Another theory is that a female orca within the group named White Gladis may be acting out because of a past traumatic run-in with a vessel. Perhaps, then, the behavior is catching on among juveniles, because they “look up to these very important females in the pod,” in orcas’ matriarchal society , as  Alfredo López Fernandez , a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and a member of the Atlantic Orca Working Group, said to CNN ’s Jacopo Prisco in June.

Still, some scientists point out that we, as humans, cannot presume to know the orcas’ motivation. And any attempts to guess are just that: guesswork.

“Nobody knows why this is happening,” Andrew W. Trites , director of marine mammal research at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told CBS News earlier this year. “My idea, or what anyone would give you, is informed speculation. It is a total mystery, unprecedented.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

Orcas’ latest boat attack claims yacht sailing in Strait of Gibraltar

A yacht sank after it was attacked by a pod of orcas for 45 minutes, a sailing company has said, marking the latest assault on a boat by the sea mammals this year.

Polish tour operator Morskie Mile — which means "sea miles" — said in a Facebook post that its yacht Grazie Mamma II was attacked while sailing the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco on Oct. 31.

The whales attacked the boat's rudder, the company said, causing major damage and a leak. Despite an attempt by the captain to take the boat to the nearest port, and a rescue attempt that involved the Moroccan Navy, the yacht sank near the entrance to the port of Tanger Med, about an hour's drive east of the city of Tangiers.

The boat's crew were unharmed, the company said in a statement that NBC News translated from Polish. The same statement was posted to the company's website by company owner Lech Lewandowski.

"For us, this yacht was everything that was great about sea sailing," he said.

"Long-term friendships were formed onboard. We sailed this yacht through the most beautiful places in Europe and the Atlantic archipelagos, trained numerous yacht helmsmen, discovered the beautiful and unknown, tasted Mediterranean specialties and sailed, sailed, sailed," Lewandowski continued.

The company said it was planning to honor forthcoming cruise bookings by using "friends' yachts." Future trips will take in the Baltic Sea, Norway, Italy and the Canary Islands, according to the company's website. A single leg of a voyage can cost 1,800 Polish zloty ($432).

In May, it emerged that orcas were responsible for attacking and sinking three boats in southern Europe. Encounters between orcas and humans have been increasing since 2020, researchers say , but no human deaths have been reported.

The increased orca-boat activity has led to a slew of internet memes this year, with some claiming they were joining the "orca wars" on the side of the orcas.

In September, a Russian boat on a round-the-world trip was sunk after a prolonged attack by tiny cookiecutter sharks.

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Watch CBS News

Killer whales sink yacht after 45-minute attack, Polish tour company says

By Emily Mae Czachor

November 6, 2023 / 9:58 AM EST / CBS News

A group of orcas managed to sink a yacht off the coast of Morocco last week, after its 45-minute attack on the vessel caused irreparable damage, a Polish tour company said.

The incident happened Tuesday, Oct. 31, as a crew with the boat touring group sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar. The narrow waterway bridges the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which separates the southern tip of Europe from northern Africa. 

A pod of orcas, colloquially called killer whales, approached the yacht and "hit the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing major damage and leakage," the tour agency Morskie Mile, which is based in Warsaw and operated the yacht, wrote on  Facebook in a translated post.

Although its captain and crew were assisted by a search-and-rescue team as well as the Moroccan Navy, the yacht could not be salvaged. It sank near the entrance to the port of Tanger-Med, a major complex of ports some 30 miles northeast of Tangier along the Strait of Gibraltar. None of the crew members were harmed, said the Polish tour agency, adding that those on board the sunken yacht were already safe and in Spain by the time their Facebook post went live. 

"This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us. Longtime friendships formed on board," wrote Morskie Mile. The company said it was involved in other upcoming cruises in the Canary Islands and would work to make sure those boat trips went ahead as planned.

Last week's incident in the Strait of Gibraltar was not the first of its kind. Reported attacks by killer whales that seem to be trying deliberately to capsize boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal have more than tripled over the last two years, according to data  released in the spring by the research group GTOA, which studies orcas around Gibraltar.

"Nobody knows why this is happening," Andrew W. Trites, professor and director of Marine Mammal Research at the University of British Columbia, told CBS News in May. "My idea, or what anyone would give you, is informed speculation. It is a total mystery, unprecedented." 

GTOA recorded 52 maritime interactions with orcas between the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia, a coastal province in northwestern Spain, between July and November 2020. The incidents picked up in the years that followed, with 197 interactions recorded in 2021 and 207 recorded in 2022, GTOA said, noting that the interactions mainly affected sailboats. 

Then, in June of this year, one of two sailing teams involved in an international race around the world reported a frightening confrontation involving multiple orcas as they traveled through the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar. The teams, which were competing in The Ocean Race, said the orcas did not damage their boats or harm crews, but recalled the sea creatures pushing up against and, in one instance, ramming into one of the boats. The orcas also nudged and bit the rudders, one crew member said.

Caitlin O'Kane and Kerry Breen contributed to this report.

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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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."

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Orcas attack boat with ruthless efficiency, tearing off rudders in just 15 minutes

As the crew motored inshore after the encounter, one of the orcas reappeared, chased the boat into the marina and tore off what little fiberglass was left on the two rudders.

Orcas that attacked a sailboat in the Strait of Gibraltar ripped its two rudders off in less than 15 minutes then played with the debris, dramatic footage of the encounter shows.

One of the orcas also came back for more as the crew headed inshore, chasing the boat all the way to the marina in Sotogrande, Spain, where it tore off what was left of the rudders.

"They went directly for the rudders," Dan Kriz, a skipper who was aboard the catamaran and delivering it for the Florida-based company Catamaran Guru, told Live Science in an email. "The whole thing took about 10 to 15 minutes."

The catamaran was passing through the strait on its way to the Canary Islands on April 15 when a pod of four or five orcas , at least three of them juveniles, surfaced and launched themselves at the boat's two rudders. Kriz said he saw two of the juveniles make a beeline for the rudders, while an adult orca was "cruising around."

Related: In rare attack, 30 orcas 'badly wounded' 2 adult gray whales in California

In a video of the encounter, one of the juveniles glides under the stern then head-buts the boat's underside while thrashing in the water. Five seconds later, the orca appears again holding a large piece of fiberglass in its mouth, which it holds up to the surface while another orca swims under the stern.

The assault was targeted and efficient, but the orcas stuck around and "played with pieces of fiberglass after they took them off," Kriz said. 

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But that was not the end of the encounter. "When we were motoring to the marina, we saw an adult orca chasing us," Kriz said.

The crew immediately turned the engine off upon the orca's return. "We stopped and she took what was left of the rudders," Kriz said. "Then they let us go." Pictures of the rudders after the encounter show the metal scaffold bent and stripped of all the fiberglass.

This isn't the first time orcas have followed a boat inshore. An encounter with orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar on May 24 ended with the pod following a yacht all the way to port .

The April 15 encounter is the second time Kriz has been confronted by orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar. Three years ago, when the attacks first started, his crew was one of the first to experience the Iberian orcas' unusual behavior , when a pod of eight circled and nudged the yacht for over an hour. Since then, researchers have recorded over 500 cases of orcas bumping against boats, three of them resulting in boats sinking . Scientists think a female called White Gladis triggered the behavior after she was traumatized by a collision with a boat or illegal entrapment. 

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The orca attacks appear to have become more swift since his first encounter, Kriz said. "This time they didn't circle the boat. Compared with 2020, it didn't take that long."

However, experts say there is no evidence that orcas are more efficient now. "They still do the same as in 2020," said Mónica González, a marine biologist with the Coordinadora para o Estudo dos Mamíferos Mariños, or Coordinator for the Study of Marine Mammals (CEMMA).

"We are collecting all the information we can about interactions and we don't have anything new," González told Live Science in an email.

Sascha is a U.K.-based trainee staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.

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Orcas Sink Fourth Boat Off Iberia, Unnerving Sailors

Orcas caused enough damage to sink a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar last week. A small pod has been slamming boats in recent years, worrying skippers charting routes closer to shore.

By Isabella Kwai

The yacht Grazie Mamma II carried its crew along the coastlines and archipelagos of the Mediterranean. Its last adventure was off the coast of Morocco last week, when it encountered a pod of orcas.

The marine animals slammed the yacht’s rudder for 45 minutes, causing major damage and a leak, according to Morskie Mile , the boat’s Polish operators. The crew escaped, and rescuers and the Moroccan Navy tried to tow the yacht to safety, but it sank near the port of Tanger Med, the operator said on its website.

The account of the sinking is adding to the worries of many sailors along the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, where marine biologists are studying a puzzling phenomenon: Orcas are jostling and ramming boats in interactions that have disrupted dozens of voyages and caused at least four boats in the past two years to sink.

The largest of the dolphin family, orcas are playful apex predators that hunt sharks, whales and other prey but are generally amiable to humans in the wild . The orcas hunting in the Strait of Gibraltar are considered to be endangered , and researchers have noticed an upsurge of unusual behavior since 2020: A small group of the marine animals have been battering boats in the busy routes around Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

While most interactions occur in the waters of southwestern Europe and North Africa, an orca also reportedly rammed a yacht some 2,000 miles north off the coast of Scotland, according to The Guardian.

“Orcas are complex, intelligent, highly social,” Erich Hoyt, a research fellow at Whale and Dolphin Conservation and author of “Orca: The Whale Called Killer,” said. “We’re still at the early stages of trying to understand this behavior.”

Researchers have pushed back at the idea that orcas are attacking vessels. Instead, they theorize that the rudders of boats have become a plaything for curious young orcas and that the behavior has become a learned fad spreading through the population. Another hypothesis, according to biologists who published a study on the population last June, is that the ramming is an “adverse behavior” because of a bad experience between an orca and a boat — though researchers tend to favor the first.

It is unclear what will stop the ramming, whether it’s playful or otherwise, a point that has left anxious skippers traveling these parts sharing advice in Facebook groups dedicated to tracking such interactions .

“It’s been an interesting summer hiding in shallow waters,” said Greg Blackburn, a skipper based in Gibraltar. Orcas slammed into a boat he was commanding in May and chewed at the rudder, he said, though the vessel was able to return to shore.

The encounter left an impression: On a recent trip to Barcelona, Mr. Blackburn had to pass through a patch where orcas had been sighted the week before. “I genuinely felt sick for about three hours,” he said, “just watching the horizon constantly for a fin to pop up.”

Conservationists, maritime rescue groups and yacht clubs are partnering to navigate the challenge of preserving an endangered population and helping sailors avoid calamity. The Cruising Association, a club supporting sailors, has recommended safety protocols for orca encounters, such as disconnecting the boat’s autopilot and staying quiet. Skippers have offered one another anecdotal advice to deter attacks, including throwing sand into the water and banging loudly on the boat.

Before leaving shore, seagoers can also consult digital platforms that now track reported orca sightings and interactions in the region. This can help them avoid the animals, or chart a route closer to shore, said Bruno Díaz López, a biologist and the director of the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute based in Galicia, Spain.

“We suggested the boats stay in shallow waters,” he said, adding that they had noticed more boats changing their journeys. “Maybe the trip takes longer, yes. But it is worth it.”

Mr. Blackburn, the skipper, said he had heard of people resorting to throwing firecrackers into the sea to try to scare the animals away, adding that the boats served as people’s homes on the ocean. “At the end of the day, if you’re protecting your home what are you going to do?”

But the ocean is the orcas’ home, and conservationists say scaring the animals is not a solution.

“It is not about winning a battle, because this is not a war,” Mr. López said. “We need to be respectful.”

Isabella Kwai is a breaking news reporter in the London bureau. She joined The Times in 2017 as part of the Australia bureau. More about Isabella Kwai

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Orcas sink another sailboat as a bewildering wave of attacks continues

Orcas have been damaging or sinking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar for the past few years and we don’t know why

By Corryn Wetzel

7 November 2023

A orca and fishing boats in the Strait of Gibraltar

Lisa Collins/robertharding/Alamy

Earlier this year, there were several reports of orcas severely damaging sailing boats in the Strait of Gibraltar – and they are at it again.

On 31 October, a pod of orcas surrounded a sailboat off the coast of Morocco. The whales nipped at the ship’s rudder and rammed the hull for about 45 minutes, according to a social media post by the tour company operating the boat. The damaged yacht tried to make it back to shore, but ultimately sank near the entrance of a port.

Where is this happening?

In the Strait of Gibraltar – a strip of sea separating the southern tip of Europe from northern Africa. A pod of orcas there has rammed boats and ripped off the rudders, sinking four sailboats and damaging dozens more. The orcas began a wave of activity this May, and videos documenting the encounters have been sweeping the internet since.

At least a dozen whales are taking part in the activity, sparking a flurry of speculation over whether the orcas (Orcinus orca) may be teaching each other how to bring down boats and organising into an army. But non-combative reasons could be behind the apparent trend.

How long has this been going on?

The rise in whale encounters over the past year has captured public attention, but altercations with these orcas began earlier than this. Scientists, fishers and locals began reporting unusual encounters in the Strait of Gibraltar in May 2020 . According to the Atlantic Orca Working Group , which tracks this pod, there were 207 reported interactions in 2022. While many interactions were relatively harmless, at least four ships have sunk this year, with no reported injuries to people – all of whom were rescued before their boats went under.

Over the past few years, these orca-boat encounters in the Mediterranean seem to have escalated during the month of May, which is when the pod’s favourite food, bluefin tuna, is migrating through the area. That makes this latest confrontation distinct from the others.

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What exactly are the orcas doing to boats?

In most cases, the orcas take turns quickly approaching the stern of the boat, with an apparent interest in the boat’s rudders, which they pierce or snap with their teeth. The whales have also been seen pressing into sailboats with their head and with the flanks of their body, occasionally tearing holes in the hull.

Sometimes, they cause no damage to the ships, instead riding in the boat’s wake. Notably, this group of whales seems less interested in large or motorised vessels. “They’re hyper-focused on sailboats,” says Deborah Giles at the University of Washington in Seattle.

How many orcas are involved?

The encounters, including the latest one last week, usually involve only a handful of whales from a pod of around 39. Images and video of the events are helping researchers track which members of the pod are most involved and which have yet to exhibit the behaviour. Currently, around 15 orcas are partaking in the boat-ramming activity. “It’s a behaviour that has probably spread from one individual,” says Andrew Trites at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

Can orcas learn from one another? Will this behaviour spread?

Orcas are a social species capable of learning from their podmates, so it is possible the behaviour is a trend that is catching on. But this doesn’t mean that the whales are intentionally teaching their podmates to target boats, which would require communicating a motive and recruiting others to the cause. Instead, it may just look fun or interesting to the orcas.

This North Atlantic subpopulation, like many orca pods, is distinct from others in diet , culture , dialect and genetics. Members of this pod don’t mingle with other orcas, so it is unlikely this behaviour will spread to other populations, though it could spread further within this pod.

Whale songs can spread between groups nearly 8000 kilometres apart

Why are orcas doing this? Is it revenge?

Online rumours have swirled about an orca called White Gladis, who was supposedly traumatised in an encounter with a boat. This is speculation based on healed injuries on her fins, but it isn’t clear that those injuries were caused by an encounter with a boat. Orcas rake each other with their teeth, which could offer another explanation for the scars. Most experts agree there isn’t any evidence that White Gladis is training other whales to attack, and there is no clear motive for podmates to risk personal injury for her vengeance. It is also unknown if White Gladis was involved in this latest clash.

“Nobody knows why this is happening,” says Trites. “All the reports coming in have been from non-scientists, non-specialists – people that are terrified.” He says orcas are a highly intelligent species capable of self-recognition, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are capable of planning and enacting revenge.

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What else could be behind the increase in orca encounters?

Both Trites and Giles think it is more likely that the orcas are just having fun or seeking an admittedly terrifying back scratch. “These whales are very tactile,” says Giles. “They interact with things in their environment, including each other.” A pod of whales in British Columbia has been seen vigorously rubbing against rocky beaches, for example.

Wild orcas have never been documented hunting or eating humans, so it is unlikely this relates to wanting a meal.

Until researchers know what is motivating the encounters, it will be challenging to abate them. If the orcas see the activity as a game, for example, fleeing may elicit a more aggressive response. “This is something that we humans need to figure out and not place the blame on the whales,” says Giles.

• endangered species /
• marine biology /
• whales and dolphins /

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May 24, 2023

Why Has a Group of Orcas Suddenly Started Attacking Boats?

Killer whales in a group near Spain and Portugal may be teaching one another to mess with small boats. They sank their third vessel earlier this month

By Stephanie Pappas

A group of three orcas, also known as killer whales, are seen swimming in the Strait of Gibraltar. Individuals in the critically endangered subpopulation have been attacking boats off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Malcolm Schuyl/Alamy Stock Photo

A trio of orcas attacked a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar earlier this month, damaging it so badly that it sank soon afterward.

The May 4 incident was the third time killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) have sunk a vessel off the coasts of Portugal and Spain in the past three years. The subpopulation of orcas in this region began harassing boats, most often by biting at their rudder, in 2020. Almost 20 percent of these attacks caused enough damage to disable the vessels, says Alfredo López, an orca researcher at the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), which monitors the Iberian killer whale population. “It is a rare behavior that has only been detected in this part of the world,” he says.

Researchers aren’t sure why the orcas are going after the watercraft. There are two hypotheses, according to López. One is that the killer whales have invented a new fad, something that subpopulations of these members of the dolphin family are known to do. Much as in humans, orca fads are often spearheaded by juveniles, López says. Alternatively, the attacks may be a response to a bad past experience involving a boat.

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The first known incident occurred in May 2020 in the Strait of Gibraltar, an area with heavy boat traffic. Since then GTOA has recorded 505 cases of orcas reacting to boats. Sometimes they simply approached the vessels, and only a fraction of cases involved physical contact, López says. In a study published in June 2022 in Marine Mammal Science , he and his colleagues cataloged 49 instances of orca-boat contact in 2020 alone. The vast majority of the attacks were on sailboats or catamarans, with a handful involving fishing boats and motorboats. The average length of the vessels was 12 meters (39 feet). For comparison, a full-grown orca can be 9.2 meters (30 feet) long.

The researchers found that the orcas preferentially attack the boats’ rudder, sometimes scraping the hull with their teeth. Such attacks often snap the rudder, leaving the boat unable to navigate. In three cases, the animals damaged a boat so badly that it sank: In July 2022 they sank a sailboat with five people onboard. In November 2022 they caused a sailboat carrying four to go down. And finally, in this month’s attack, the Swiss sailing yacht Champagne had to be abandoned, and the vessel sank while it was towed to shore. In all cases, the people onboard were rescued safely.

In 2020 researchers observed nine different individual killer whales attacking boats; it’s unclear if others have since joined in. The attacks tended to come from two separate groups: a trio of juveniles occasionally joined by a fourth and a mixed-aged group consisting of an adult female named White Gladis, two of her young offspring and two of her sisters. Because White Gladis was the only adult involved in the initial incidents, the researchers speculate that she may have become entangled in a fishing line at some point, giving her a bad association with boats. Other adult orcas in the region have injuries consistent with boat collisions or entanglement, López says. “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,” he says.

The safe rescue of everyone involved, however, suggests to Deborah Giles that these orcas don’t have malevolent motivations against humans. Giles, science and research director of the Washington State–based nonprofit conservation organization Wild Orca, points out that humans relentlessly harassed killer whales off the coasts of Washington and Oregon in the 1960s and 1970s, capturing young orcas and taking them away for display at marine parks. “These are animals that, every single one of them, had been captured at one point or another—most whales multiple times. And these are whales that saw their babies being taken away from them and put on trucks and driven away, never to be seen again,” Giles says. “And yet these whales never attacked boats, never attacked humans.”

Though it’s possible that the orcas around the Iberian Peninsula could be reacting to a bad experience with a boat, Giles says, it’s pure speculation to attribute that motivation to the animals. The behavior does seem to be learned, she says, but could simply be a fad without much rhyme or reason—to the human mind, anyway. Famously, some members of the Southern Resident orcas that cruise Washington’s Puget Sound each summer and fall spent the summer of 1987 wearing dead salmon on their head. There was no apparent reason for salmon hats to come in vogue in orca circles, but the behavior spread and persisted for a few months before disappearing again. “We’re not going to know what’s happening with this population,” Giles says, referring to the Iberian orcas.

The Iberian orca attacks typically last less than 30 minutes, but they can sometimes go on for up to two hours, according to the 2022 study. In the case of the Champagne, two juvenile killer whales went after the rudder while an adult repeatedly rammed the boat, crew members told the German magazine Yacht . The attack lasted 90 minutes.

The Iberian orca subpopulation is considered critically endangered, with only 39 animals the last time a full census was conducted in 2011. A 2014 study found that this subpopulation follows the migration of their key prey , Atlantic bluefin tuna—a route that puts them in close contact with human fishing, military activities and recreational boating. Maritime authorities recommend that boaters in the area slow down and try to stay away from orcas, López says, but there is no guaranteed way to avoid the animals. He and his colleagues fear the boat attacks will come back and bite the orcas, either because boaters will lash out or because the attacks are dangerous to the animals themselves. “They run a great risk of getting hurt,” López says.

Orcas sink another boat in Strait of Gibraltar off Morocco

For years, the region’s killer whales have been bumping, biting and, in some cases, sinking boats. but many scientists caution not to ascribe motive to the animals..

The orcas have done it again.

On Oct. 31, a pod of killer whales swarmed a Polish yacht sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar. For 45 minutes, the orcas hit the vessel’s rudder and damaged the boat, according to the company that operated it. Despite rescue efforts, the yacht never made it back to shore, sinking near the entrance of the Moroccan port of Tanger Med.

“The crew is safe, unharmed and sound,” the Polish tour company Morskie Mile wrote in a Facebook post describing the demise of its boat.

Since 2020, orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar and along the Iberian Peninsula have been bumping and biting boats — oftentimes, yachts — in dozens of incidents that have frightened mariners and confounded scientists.

A recent spate of killer whales sinking boats delighted online observers who anthropomorphize the marine mammals and hail them as working-class heroes.

Are the orcas really out to get us? What to know about recent attacks.

Fishing vessels and motorboats have all had their run-ins with orcas in the region, though sailboats appear to be the most popular target, according to a 2022 study . The tour agency Morskie Mile did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

No one is quite sure what is prompting the orcas to go after vessels — whether the whales are simply being playful, or had a bad run-in with a boat in the past, prompting the aggressive behavior.

Some scientists say the incidents should not be called “attacks” at all, since the whale’s motives are unknown. Perpetuating the idea that whales are out for revenge, they fear, may lead to retaliation by boaters.

“We urge the media and public to avoid projecting narratives onto these animals,” a group of more than 30 scientists wrote in an open letter this summer. “In the absence of further evidence, people should not assume they understand the animals’ motivations.”

What we do know is that orcas are highly intelligent marine mammals that appear to learn from one another. Usually, that learned behavior is a hunting strategy, such as corralling and eating massive blue whales .

Other times, it is something stranger, such as when orcas near Seattle were observed “wearing” dead salmon as hats. Orcas, it turns out, can be victims of cultural fads, too.

One other thing is clear: Killer whales normally don’t hurt people. And humans are a bigger threat to them than they are to us.

Getting entangled in fishing gear or struck by speeding boats is a threat for all whales. With perhaps fewer than 40 individuals left , the orca population off the coasts of Spain, Portugal and Morocco is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

First Rescue Attempt For Stranded Orca Orphan Calf Is Unsuccessful

ZEBALLOS, British Columbia (AP) — An orphaned killer whale stranded in a remote Vancouver Island lagoon is proving difficult for rescuers to catch, an official at the site said Friday.

Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John said the capture operation is in the “demobilization stage” after an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the 2-year-old orca that began before dawn.

He said they plan to try again in a couple of days, and that rescuers were “standing down.”

The 2-year-old calf has been alone in Little Espinosa Inlet for about three weeks after its pregnant mother was beached at low tide and died on March 23.

The pair got into the lagoon by swimming through a narrow and fast-moving channel connecting it to the ocean.

The First Nation said earlier that the rescue was launched at 5 a.m. because of favorable weather conditions.

The rescue plan involves trying to corral the female calf into a shallow part of the 3-kilometer lagoon, using boats, divers and a net, before she would be placed in a large fabric sling and hoisted onto a transport vehicle.

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From our partner, more in environment.

Killer whales make deadly return as attacks on yachts begin again in warmer weather

Killer whales are making their return for the summer as warmer weather sees attacks on yachts begin.

A difficult summer is anticipated in the Strait of Gibraltar with boats preparing for dangerous interactions with orcas. More than 250 boats have been damaged by the whales since 2020.

Just four weeks ago, a group of young orcas bit the rudder of a French boat. The crew scared the whales away using a flare and managed to make it back to port.

Around the same time, orcas bit the rudder of a sailboat belonging to a team in the Quebec-Saint Maloo regatta near Morocco.

In recent weeks there have been sightings of orcas between Lisbon and Cape San Vicente, which suggests that the orcas are heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar.

The presence of orcas in the Mediterranean may be down to them following tuna, their favourite food, which are moving from the Atlantic into warmer waters to mate.

This also happened last summer, with the peak of incidents between boats and the whales happening in August, with one crew even shooting at a school of orcas, leading to a criminal investigation.

About half of the boats that orcas interact with take any kind of damage, which tends to be concentrated on the rudder.

Experts have said that the orcas are not confusing the boats and rudders for anything else, they know what they are and the effect they have. Stopping the engine and all movement tends to make orcas lose interest.

Sailors have been told to stay out of the sight of orcas and not shout, try to hit them, touch them, or throw things at them as this can stimulate them into interacting with the boat. Experts say the incidents are not aggressive but are likely intended as playful or protective.

There are no direct intentional attacks by orcas in the wild on humans. These orcas do not eat seals or anything that would make them mistake humans for food.