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Orcas disrupt boat race near Spain in latest display of dangerous, puzzling behavior

In a image from video provided by The Ocean Race, an orca moves along a rudder of the Team JAJO entry in The Ocean Race on Thursday, June 22, 2023, as the boat approached the Strait of Gibraltar. A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. No one was injured. (The Ocean Race via AP)

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A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”

“Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.

Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 16-21 feet (5-6½ meters) and weigh more than 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.

The behavior defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

The sailors were warned of the hazard.

“We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg,” Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. “So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur.”

Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to scare the orcas off, but not before it had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive this weekend.

“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks,” he said. “Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK.”

The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) circumnavigation of the globe. Boats have already contended with a giant seaweed flotilla , catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg.

Although the race course navigates around exclusion zones to protect known marine habitats, there have been previous encounters with whales in The Ocean Race and other high-speed regattas.

However, they usually involve the boats crashing into the animals, and not the other way around.

One of the boats in the around-the-world portion of this year’s Ocean Race triggered its hazard alarm after hitting what they suspected was a whale off the coast of Newfoundland in May; two crew members were injured in the collision. At the beginning of the 2013 America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay, a whale was reported in the bay and organizers were prepared to delay a race if it wandered onto the course. In 2022, the start of SailGP’s $1 million, winner-take-all Season 2 championship race on the same area of San Francisco Bay was delayed when a whale was spotted on the course.

In 2005, the first South African yacht to challenge for the America’s Cup hit a whale with its 12-foot keel during training near Cape Town, stopping the 75-foot sloop dead in the water, injuring two crewmembers and snapping off both steering wheels.

AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this story.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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

Scott Neuman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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Dealing with orca attacks and how to navigate ‘Orca Alley’

• August 7, 2023

In the last three years, orca have started ‘attacking’ yachts on their way through the Gibraltar Straits. James Kenning looks at how to minimise the risk

There is a new buzzword amongst cruisers heading in and out of the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar… orcas! Wind, tide and shipping are no longer the only planning considerations in making passage through the Straits; it is avoiding an encounter with the family of Iberian orca that have developed a taste for sailing boat rudders.

This issue is largely isolated to this geographical area and the distinct orca population of 50 or so animals that live there. However, shortly before we published this piece, reports came in of a yacht being repeatedly rammed by an orca near the Shetland Islands, over 1,500 miles away.

This remains a one-off at the moment, though over the years there have been a number of reports of orcas interacting physically with yachts. The thing that has alarmed sailors off the Iberian peninsula is the frequency and severity of the interactions in a trend that is very recent.

The first series of interactions between yacht and orca, where the cetaceans make purposeful and damaging contact with boats, were recorded in the post-COVID sailing season of 2020.

Initially it was thought ‘unlucky’ to be the victim of oneof these rogue interactions (or ‘attacks’ depending on your point of view) where the orca would deliberately target the rudder of a transiting sailing boat.

Encountering cetaceans is normally a highlight of a trip, but recent encounters are resulting in damaged boats. Photo: James Kenning

Skippers of affected yachts talked of fear and helplessness as the large mammals spun boats around and literally chewed their rudders to destruction. In 2022, the threatof these interactions became even more serious with two boats suffering damage so severe that the yachts sank, thankfully without loss of life.

In 2023, the number of interactions between orca and yachts has significantly increased and, with the sinking of a third boat in May, the phenomenon briefly became the focus of international news and, in some reporting, sensationalised.

For a sailor’s perspective on the subjective experience of these interactions, Thomas Käsbohrer’s book, The Riddle of the Orcas , is a well-researched collection of 19 stories, from which he speculates on possible causes and solutions.

The author’s boat, Arkyla, on passage, during which he managed to avoid orca interactions. Photo: James Kenning

Planning our passage

Needing to deliver my Regina 43 Arkyla from her Portuguese winter base of Lagos to her new seasonal home of Valencia, minimising the orca risk became my overriding concern in my passage planning along the Algarve, through the Straits, and to the considered safety of Gibraltar and the gateway to the Med.

It became clear that information would be the key weapon for keeping myself, boat and crew safe whilst transiting the danger zone. The issue was now one of clearly identifying the ‘danger zone’ and, with an almost overwhelming array of ‘official’ and ‘expert’ advice to decipher, of deciding what sources of reporting and information to give most credence.

The first point of note is that the area of threat is not a constant; the orcas migrate seasonally from the Straits, up the Portuguese Atlantic coast, and into the Bay of Biscay . However, whilst their location may vary it is, nonetheless, predictable; the orcas travel with a purpose – to follow the tuna they primarily feed upon. And neither is this family of orcas new to science; Dr Renaud Stephanis and a team of researchers from CIRCE (Conservation, Information and Research of Cetaceans) have been studying this group within the Straits for 20 years now and their seasonal migration patterns, as well as the individuals within the family, are well known.

Article continues below…

Juvenile orcas imitate White Gladis, attacking yachts off the Iberian peninsula

Juvenile orcas attacking sailing yachts could be imitating the behaviour of one individual adult orca named White Gladis, scientists believe.…

Orca ‘rams yacht’ off Shetland as close encounters spread to North Sea

Dr Wim Rutten, a 72-year-old retired Dutch physicist was sailing alone from Lerwick to Bergen when an orca appeared and…

While there is much research, and speculation, into the causes of this new behaviour, the reasons behind it are not known. From play, to training, to responding to traumatic experiences or competition for food, a range of possible triggers are mooted. The population is categorised into five separate communities, some of which overlap with each other and others which do not.

Orca are matrilineal animals, and much behaviour is learnt from the older post-menopausal females within the group. The website www.orcaiberica.org includes a full photographic catalogue of every animal’s unique markings and history, if you are interested in identifying them.

While orca are distributed around the world, this particular population is unique. It was listed as critically endangered by the Spanish government in 2019 and is therefore subject to a range of protections.

An official heat map indicating the high risk areas for orca interactions

The animals are biologically different, most obviously being smaller (around 6m in length), than their orca cousins in the north-east Atlantic, which can grow up to 9m. It is now known that an orca called Gladis Blanca (Gladis being the family name), a grandmother, has demonstrated ‘attacks’ on yachts, and while not thought to be training the younger animals, they have been replicating her behaviour.

Gladis Blanca is known to have experienced and witnessed traumatic experiences, including the wounding, mutilation and death of members of her family group, and it is speculated that this may have been a trigger for the behaviour. Orcas are highly intelligent, social animals, well able to develop, share and copy new behaviours.

Tracking orca behaviour

During April, May and June, the orcas remain within the Straits; through a combination of daily monitoring by boat, and more recently GPS tagging, locations of the ‘problem’ orcas are accurately known. Things become a little less clear as the summer develops, however, when the orcas migrate northward toward Biscay and go ‘out of bounds’ of the Spanish Barbate-based research team.

The GTOA and Cruising Association both collate reports of orca sightings and encounters, the majority of which still do not involve any physical contact with boats. Photo: www.FIRMM.org

For the Straits area, however, location data is our primary defence. Heat maps depicting current danger areas are available from www.orcas.pt . The site encourages sailors to sign up to a set of forums on the Telegram app. ‘Location reports’ is for recording interactions and event-free passages, whilst the wider ‘orca discussions’ forum provides a space to discuss tactics and potential solutions. I would consider membership of both forums essential.

The GTOA and the Cruising Association disseminate data and reports on the nature of these interactions in an attempt to understand both the orca’s behaviour and the measures sailors can take to protect their boats from damage.

Avoiding orca encounters

The key tactic for avoiding the killer whales is clear; keep away from the known orca locations. The advice is to transit the Straits (and indeed the Atlantic coast of Portugal) in shallow waters. If possible, keep within the 20m depth contour where very few interactions have so far been recorded.

This yacht sank in Barbate harbour after it had been towed in following orca damage. Photo: James Kenning

During my passage east in late May, on average one to two boats were towed daily into Barbate by the Salvamento rescue service. Almost without exception, the disabled boats were attacked whilst transiting directly through the known, and published, orca hot spots further offshore.

In particular, the areas off Barbate and, on the African side of the Strait, Tangier, were proven to be the most dangerous for boats on passage.

Inshore hazards

The navigation to stay shallow has its own challenges, of course. The coast is littered with small fishing pots, many poorly marked. Night sailing brings far too great a risk of snagging a prop close to shore, so the safest strategy is to plan a series of day hops along the coast.

Fortunately, there are plenty of well-spaced ports of refuge, so it is only time that becomes the major limitation. I chose to make stops in Ferragudo, Culatra, Mazagón, Rota, and Barbate before my last push through the threat zone to Gibraltar.

The marinas along this stretch of coast are not expensive, so cost is not a prohibitive factor – indeed, the opportunity to explore a little adds some interest to what might otherwise be a ‘dull delivery trip’.

Orcas ‘attacked’ this catamaran while it was being delivered to the Med. Photo: David Smith

Seasonal tuna nets provide another obstacle to safe passage. These are laid off Conil, Barbate, Zahara, and Tarifa. They are charted and well-buoyed but extend into the danger depths where orca may prey.

Some nets can be passed shoreside, but a skipper must make careful consideration of weather and sea state – generally an ‘inside passage’ should only be made in the calmest of conditions. I chose to go inside the Zahara net, where depth below keel bottomed out at 1.3m, but it was the proximity to the shore (perhaps 30m) that made my knees tremble! A friend tracking my progress by AIS later asked if I had trailered on land for that stretch!

The Telegram forums provide a valuable resource regarding the ‘live’ status of the tuna nets. Some nets may be periodically attached to shore making them impassable, and precise descriptions of ‘rogue’ buoys helps when making informed decisions.

The Salvamento rescue boat has been very busy towing orca-damaged boats back to harbour. Photo: James Kenning

Responding to orca attacks

The best defence is to avoid the orcas entirely, but what are the recommended actions if one is unfortunate enough to be subjected to an attack? Here the advice diverges and ‘attack actions’ must be carefully considered.

There are many theories and much discussion around how best to respond should orcas make contact with your boat. Broadly, they are divided into passive and active measures – making noise or remaining silent, stopping or accelerating either forwards or backwards, putting things in the water or avoiding drawing attention. There are also suggestions of more aggressive measures, some of which are illegal in the various territories.

Initially yachts were advised to switch off all electronics, hide below decks, and wait until the orca grew tired of interacting with the boat and left. While this remains the official advice from bodies such as the Cruising Association and GTOA, the statistics now show that most of the measures have very little, if any, effect on the severity or duration of any encounters.

The latest advice is to motor at best speed straight for shallow water. Photo: Graham Snook/YM

Switching off electronics is not now considered to be a helpful tactic but turning off the engine and waiting out the attack remains the official advice from the GTOA. Unfortunately, in most cases, the orca only cease interaction once they have destroyed the rudder as it is only then that they lose interest in the ‘game’. This often leaves the yacht unable to continue and it usually requires a tow to harbour by the rescue services.

Make a swift exit

The advice from the scientists of CIRCE (Conservation, Information and Study of Cetacean, www.circe.info), the Spanish-based team studying the Iberian orca, as well as the Spanish government, however, is for an active rather than passive defence.

If you must pass through a danger area, then transit in daylight and under motor. If attacked, yachts should apply full power to leave the area of attack, preferably heading for shallow waters, as fast as possible.

CIRCE scientists have been seeking out orca encounters to test which deterrents and evasion tactics work best. Photo: James Kenning

CIRCE provides this advice from empirical data collected during structured experiments with the orcas aboard their research vessel Nashira. The theory is not just conjecture; it has been tested over numerous encounters in which Nashira has purposefully been ‘placed at risk’. The orcas will continue to attack the boat but, once separated from the main feeding group by 0.5 to 1 mile, will give up the chase and return to the family unit.

The advice is repeated daily on the Telegram forum – if attacked, leave the area as fast as possible. Do not waste time with countermeasures such as dropping sails and going into reverse, or deploying sand over the stern; minimise the time within the interaction zone by powering away from the main orca group.

Skippers are obliged to report orca incidents to the coastguard

Other orca deterrent tactics

Note should be made of the numerous countermeasures being discussed by cruising sailors. These vary in their impact on the marine environment and, more to the point, their legality. It is noted that the Iberian orca is a protected species in both Spain and Portugal and that both countries have laws in place regarding how boats can interact with these endangered animals.

The use of anti-predation ‘pingers’ is illegal in both countries and is now thought to be ineffective. Firecrackers, although legal to purchase in Spain, are prohibited for use if deployment will harm an orca’s acoustic ability. Pouring diesel over the side of the boat is an environmental hazard, though deploying a bucket of sand off the stern may be seen as a non-destructive deterrent. Often discussed online, shooting orca clearly falls well outside the law for a number of reasons.

For all these methods, however, the advice is clear – avoid the known areas of orca activity. If caught unawares, leave the area as fast as possible even if still under attack.

Reporting orca incidents

It’s worth noting that Spanish regulations require you to report anything that could pose a risk to navigation, and that includes orca interactions, which should be reported to the Spanish coastguard/MRCC.

Finally, a note regarding the work of the Cruising Association to collate and analyse structured data of both eventful and uneventful passages through the orca danger areas of Biscay, Atlantic Portugal, the Algarve and the Gibraltar Straits. Success of this project is dependent upon the quality and quantity of reports submitted by skippers who have made passages such that a level of statistical confidence can be attributed to the various theories and hypotheses regarding this growing problem. The reports can be accessed by CA and non-CA members alike, and all skippers are requested to submit passage reports at www.theca.org.uk/orcas/reports .

Orca deterrent measures

If orcas interact with your vessel, take the following measures if possible without creating greater danger:

• Keep people away from the sides of the boat, ensuring they have the best possible protection against sudden movements of the vessel, falling into the water, or displaced loose items.
• It is always preferable to navigate under engine rather than sail. Avoid stopping the boat. Navigate in a straight line at the highest possible speed (within constraints of vessel and conditions) towards shallower water until the orcas lose interest.
• For sailing boats, stability may be affected if the keel is damaged, and it is therefore better to motor rather than sail.
• Navigate as close to the coast as it is safe to do so for your vessel, particularly within Barbate Bay.
• Any vessel in the presence of orcas or cetaceans must comply with Royal Decree 1727/2007 of December 21, which establishes measures for the protection of cetaceans, especially for avoiding the behaviours that could cause death, injury, disturbance, or distress to the cetaceans.
• Observe, and if safe to do so for the vessel, crew and orca, take photographic records of the individual orca involved.
• Follow any further advice issued by the government to sailors.
• Every skipper has the obligation to report any incidents that may pose a danger to navigation. Interactions should be reported through the corresponding Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.

Until it is understood why orcas are targeting boats, finding which deterrents are effective is hit and miss. Photo: Yuri Smityuk/Getty

GTOA Safety protocol

• Disconnect autopilot to avoid damage and let the wheel/tiller run free.
• Keep hands away from wheel or tiller to avoid injury.
• Stop the boat, de-power and drop or furl your sails.
• Contact the authorities on VHF 16 or by phone on 112. If you receive no response on Channel 16 then use the telephone or in the approaches to Gibraltar try the shipping control channels ‘Tarifa Traffic’ on Ch10 (or Ch67 if busy) or ‘Tangier Traffic’ on Ch69 (or Ch68 if busy).
• Keep a low profile on deck to minimise the interest to the orcas.
• Keep a firm hold when moving around to prevent injury in the event of ramming.
• Take photograph or video evidence whilst keeping a low profile. Make a note of location co-ordinates and timing of the interaction along with any other relevant details including the behaviour of the orcas for future reporting.
• After the interaction ceases, wait for several minutes to allow the orcas to move away from the area before any interest is sparked by moving off.

Risk factors

• Depth of water: Stay in shallow water. There are very few reports of interactions in water less than 20m. There may also be a reduced risk within 2 miles of the shore and in less than 40m of water. Sailing close inshore may increase other navigational risks, especially in the event of boat damage.
• Antifoul: Possibly slightly higher risk with black antifoul, and lower with copper antifoul, but there is no statistically significant difference.
• Autopilot: The noise may increase the risk of an attack, but this is not yet proven. A strike on the rudder can also damage the autopilot.
• Day/night: Interactions happening both day and night, with only a marginally reduced risk seeming to be shown at night, but resultant rescue at night is harder.

Disengage the autopilot to avoid mechanical damage, though rudder stops may then also be vulnerable. Photo: Graham Snook/YM

Deterrent measures

• Many deterrent measures are discussed on social media and mentioned in skippers’ comments in reports submitted to the CA. No reliable, legal measures have yet been proven.
• Reversing: Going backwards in the presence of orcas is considered illegal by certain authorities, except in the case of emergency, and is always illegal when there is intent to harm an orca. In 29 reports of boats reversing, 16 found it a successful tactic, 11 did not. If using this tactic, do so as soon as orcas are sighted rather than after contact is made.
• Sand: Orcas use echolocation to ‘see’ their surroundings, navigate and hunt. Some fishermen have been known to throw sand in the water to create a haze to disrupt the orcas’ echolocation ‘vision’. As long as the sand is not thrown at the orcas directly, it is harmless and a tactic GTOA considers worthy of testing.
• Noise: The use of deterrent pingers is illegal without licence as it can cause hearing damage to the orcas, and can increase vessel-orca collisions. The few who have used it and reported back to the CA have confirmed failure. Other noise on board has had mixed results. Out of nine reports received on attempting to deter orcas by making noise, five succeeded and four failed. It is also possible that making noise may extend the interest of orcas.
• Playing dead: The GTOA advises that ‘playing dead’ would calm the orcas’ heart rate. CA data shows that the interactions where crews followed the ‘playing dead’ protocol lasted longer than those who did not. However, research undertaken by GTOA indicates that the level of damage to the yacht is marginally less when ignoring the orcas.

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• NATURE BRIEFING
• 24 May 2023

Daily briefing: Why orcas are attacking boats in Spain

• Flora Graham

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A bird takes flight as the private spaceflight firm SpaceX launches a rocket from Vandenberg US Space Force Base in Lompoc, California. Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Via Getty

How rocket launches impact wildlife

Scientists will, for the first time, assess whether the thunderous noise of rocket launches harms endangered animals that live around California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, one of the world’s busiest spaceports. Chronic noise pollution — from cities or car or boat traffic, for example — is known to increase animals’ stress levels. Over the next three years, cameras and audio monitors will capture whether creatures change their behaviour, such as birds abandoning their nests or altering their songs, in response to the extremely loud launches. The number of yearly launches at Vandenberg is set to rise from 5—15 to up to 100 by 2030.

Nature | 6 min read

Game-changing obesity treatments

Anti-obesity medications that mimic the hormone GLP-1 — semaglutide (sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) — are proving shockingly effective at causing weight loss. Now, health-care providers are getting to grips with how to best use them . This includes categorizing obesity to identify who is likely to benefit the most from the drugs, studying how long people will have to stay on them and fine-tuning doses to avoid downsides, such as muscle loss.

Nature | 5 min read

Why orcas are attacking boats in Spain

Orcas ( Orcinus orca ) have sunk three boats off the Iberian coast of Europe , and the behaviour seems to be spreading. Biologists first noted the trend in 2020. They suspect that it is a defensive behaviour, which originated with a female orca nicknamed White Gladis after it experienced an unknown trauma. Iberian orcas are critically endangered, and only 39 were recorded in the last census, in 2011.

LiveScience | 6 min read

Reference: Marine Mammal Science paper

Features & opinion

The mental-health crisis gripping science.

Researchers at all career stages and across the world are experiencing bullying and discrimination, anxiety and depression, financial stress and poor work–life balance. Large studies have provided hard data on how dire the situation is , particularly for members of under-represented groups. What exactly needs to change is far from clear. Many scientists agree that talking about mental health has to become normal. There are programmes that tackle equity issues, and unions are pushing for better working conditions. Others argue that academia needs larger, systemic changes, including zero tolerance for abuse, and drastic changes to funding structures. “This really is a problem that could potentially affect the future of science if we can’t retain young talent,” says sociologist Brandon Vaidyanathan.

Nature | 11 min read

How to start a quantum-sensor revolution

Quantum sensors, which exploit the fundamental properties of atoms and light to make extremely precise measurements of the world, could revolutionize brain imaging, remote imaging and navigation. “Many people — including business leaders — think quantum technologies are devices of the future, not the present,” write a group of quantum researchers who are hoping to change that. They lay out five priorities for commercializing quantum sensors , including making them more robust and integrating them into existing systems. And unlike quantum computers, which might be decades away from being better than classical computers, quantum sensors are already used in the laboratory and are ready to be adopted more widely.

Nature | 12 min read

The IPCC needs its own net-zero target

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should practise what it preaches and aggressively limit its own emissions , argues climate scientist Benjamin Sanderson. Replacing in-person meetings, and the requisite long-haul flights, could drastically cut its carbon footprint while decreasing demographic and social barriers to attending. “IPCC members should remember that nobody is better placed to demonstrate how to eliminate emissions,” Sanderson says.

Image of the week

Credit: Lal Muansanga

This stunning creature is a Gekko mizoramensis , a parachute gecko species that’s new to science . Parachute geckos use skin flaps along their bodies, limbs and tails to glide from tree to tree. Discovered by biologists in northeastern India, the gecko is proof that animal and plant life in the region remain poorly documented. ( Nature | 2 min read )

Quote of the day

“it’s a lifeline for folks to receive information and to really see that they are not alone.”.

Public-health researcher Jessica Fish notes that teenagers from sexual and gender minorities are one group that sees a net benefit from social media, following the US surgeon general’s warning on Tuesday that the platforms present a “profound risk of harm” to adolescent mental health. ( The New York Times | 4 min read )

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01754-y

Today I’m thinking of poet Amanda Gorman, who dazzled at the last US presidential inauguration with her poem ‘ The Hill We Climb ’. She has also written about climate change in the inspirational ‘Earthrise’ , which was named for the iconic photo taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders. “Being able to communicate, not just the science and the facts,” said Gorman in 2019 , “but also the artistry and the humanity — it gets to people in a way that I think is unique, to try to get people not to feel scared but to feel prepared to become agents of change.”

Thank you to readers as you continue to send me your favourite science-related poems. Your e-mails are always welcome at [email protected] .

Thanks for reading,

Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Katrina Krämer

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Why are killer whales going ‘Moby-Dick’ on yachts lately? Experts doubt it’s revenge

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The attacks started suddenly and inexplicably in the spring of 2020 — pods of endangered killer whales began ramming yachts and fishing boats in European waters, pushing some off course and imperiling others.

Since then, there have been more than 500 reports of orca encounters off the Iberian Peninsula, the most recent occurring Thursday when a trio of whales rubbed against and bumped a racing sloop in the Strait of Gibraltar.

In most cases, the financial and structural damage has ranged from minimal to moderate: Boats have been spun and pushed, and rudders have been smashed and destroyed. Three vessels have been so badly mauled, they’ve sunk.

As the encounters continue, shaky video captured by thrilled and fearful seafarers has ignited a global internet sensation, while experts have struggled to explain the behavior and its timing. The seemingly militant whales have also won over a legion of adoring fans — many transfixed by the notion that the mammals are targeting rich people and exacting revenge for all the wrongs humanity has waged on their species and their ocean home.

Two dozen killer whales spotted celebrating a hunt off the San Francisco coast

The unusually large group spotted near the Farallon Islands was possibly a meeting of six or seven families.

June 7, 2023

Others wonder if the unusually large pods of multi-ton cetaceans now appearing off the coasts of San Francisco , Monterey and Nantucket, Mass., may soon follow suit.

Despite such rampant speculation on social media, most killer whale scientists have offered a very different interpretation. The Moby-Dick “revenge” narrative for the behavior is highly unlikely, they say.

“That just doesn’t sit right with me,” said Deborah Giles, an orca researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of Wild Orca, a Washington-based conservation research organization.

She noted that despite the long history of orcas being hunted by whalers — and more recently marine parks — these top ocean predators have typically demonstrated a lack of aggression toward humans. There are no verified instances of orcas killing humans in the wild. The only deaths have occurred in marine parks and aquariums, where animals taken from the wild and forced to perform for humans in small tanks have attacked their trainers.

“So, I just don’t really see it as an agonistic activity; I just don’t see it going down like that,” said Giles, who has studied killer whales in the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound and the Salish Sea for nearly 20 years.

Instead, she thinks the animals are engaging with boats because the vessels are “either making an interesting vibration or sound, or maybe it’s the way the water moves past the keels that is intriguing to these animals.”

The scientific literature is rife with anecdotes and research showing high cognition, playfulness and sociality in the species known as Orcinus orca — and examples of what appear to be the cultural transmission of new behaviors, either via teaching or observation.

In 1987, a female orca in the Pacific waters off North America was spotted sporting a dead salmon on her head. Within weeks, individuals in two other pods also began wearing fish hats. The trend lasted a few months and fizzled out within a year.

In South Africa, the killing of white sharks appears to be growing in popularity among a resident group of killer whales in the waters near Cape Town; Giles has watched a local trend of “phocoenacide” — porpoise killing — grow among a group of whales off the San Juan Islands.

Wildfire burn areas in California are growing ever larger due to greenhouse gas emissions

Between 1996 and 2020, wildfire burn areas in California grew five times larger than in the 25 years prior. Scientists say climate change is to blame.

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In both cases, the behavior does not appear to be for the purpose of feeding, Giles said. The orcas do not eat the dead animals. For instance, in the case of the porpoises, the killer whales played with them — bandying them about, sometimes surfing with them, other times carrying them on the orcas’ pectoral fins — until the porpoises drowned, at which point they were abandoned, she said.

“Fads” are not unique to orcas. Other animals, including primates and other cetaceans, have also been observed to adopt new behaviors, which then spread through a social group.

Susan Perry, a biological anthropologist at UCLA, has studied a population of capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica, where she has observed and demonstrated the cultural transmission of novel behaviors, including “eye poking” — in which one monkey slips its finger “knuckle deep” between the eyelid and the bottom of another monkey’s eyeball.

But the idea that the whales’ behavior is a response to trauma has gripped many — including the researchers who most closely study this population and first documented the behavior.

In a paper published last year , a team of Portuguese and Spanish researchers suggested the behavior seen in the Strait of Gibraltar orcas could have been triggered by a variety of causes, including trauma.

Alfredo López Fernandez, a killer whale researcher with GT Orca Atlántica, a Portuguese conservation research organization, said it is impossible to know how it started, or which whale or whales may have initially instigated the attacks.

He listed several adult females as the possible original perpetrators — which then taught or showed others how to participate.

There is White Gladis, which seems to be present in most of the attacks; Gladis Negra, which was observed to have injuries in 2020, possibly from a ship strike; and Gray Gladis, which in 2018 witnessed another whale get trapped in fishing gear.

Gladis is a name given to all orcas in the pod that interact with boats; it comes from Orca gladiator, an early nickname given to these boat-jouncing killer whales.

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

For Cal Currier’s part, he thinks the whales are entertaining themselves.

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On June 8, as the 17-year-old Palo Alto High School senior sailed through the strait with his father, James, 55, and brother, West, 19, their 30-foot sailboat was accosted and spun in circles.

The rudder was battered, and the trio had to be towed to shore in Spain. “They were playing,” Currier said.

He said that when they pulled in, they were told roughly 30 other boats were ahead of them in line for repairs; half were damaged by the killer whales. He said there were no bite marks on the rudder, and he did not sense aggression from the whales.

For Giles, the Washington killer whale researcher, her biggest concern is that the longer the whales continue this behavior, the more likely it is they’ll get injured or suffer retribution at the hands of humans.

She’s hoping authorities in the region will consider non-traumatic hazing techniques — such as instructing boats to play or make sounds that irritate the whales — to get them to stop. She said studies have shown orcas don’t like the calls of pilot whales and will generally swim away if they hear them. Loud banging sounds, such as hitting a large, metal oikomi pipe underwater, can also be effective.

“Anything that might irritate them, make them lose their interest or swim away,” Giles said.

Currier said he wasn’t too rattled by the whole experience — unlike his dad and brother, who were “scared for their lives.”

The trio have since sold the boat and intend to spend the rest of the vacation on dry land.

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‘Everybody Is a Bit on Edge’: Sailors Trade Tips on Steering Clear of Orcas

With a pod of the sea creatures ramming boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, some crews are turning to homegrown solutions. Can playing heavy metal really keep them away?

By Isabella Kwai

The first time orcas appeared near his catamaran, Florian Rutsch was surprised, but prepared.

Like many venturing around the Iberian Peninsula, Mr. Rutsch had browsed Facebook groups, Telegram chats and other online platforms where sailors have been swapping tips on a relatively recent phenomenon: How do you get orcas to leave your boat alone?

In May, when the crew of his catamaran, which he charters for high-end voyages and retreats, encountered an orca group while crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, he tried some of those ideas. He scattered sand in the water, which some sailors thought could act as a deterrent (unsubstantiated). Then he slammed the engine into full throttle, moving away from the group (advice supported by the Spanish government ).

The orcas left them alone. But his second encounter with the animals in November was less civil.

This time, to deter them, the crew also tried another idea that had been passed along: booming a curated playlist of heavy metal — titled “Metal for Orcas” — through an underwater speaker. But the animals had moved quickly, targeting the rudder and disabling the boat’s steering. The crew had to call for help, and eventually Spanish rescue authorities arrived and towed the vessel to port.

“It is scary,” said Mr. Rutsch. “No one knows what works, what doesn’t work.”

‘It’s the talk of the town.’

Since 2020, orcas — apex predators that are the largest members of the dolphin family — have been disrupting the journeys of boats along the coastlines of the Iberian Peninsula, causing enough damage to a handful to sink them . Researchers don’t know why.

Online, some have been charmed by the schadenfreude of the orcas striking back at their yacht overlords, but biologists say it’s likely that the curious animals have simply learned a new way to play with boats.

It is less charming for the skippers and boat owners navigating some of the busiest water lanes in the world in floating homes that can be costly to repair. A small percentage of sailing boats have been affected, according to researchers, who are still testing methods that could minimize the interactions.

But until a tried-and-tested solution is found, sailors are gathering, online and in person, to compare notes. One Facebook group , with 59,000 members, details accounts of interactions, while in another, users talk tactics . In Telegram chats, they ask for feedback on detours to avoid what has been called “orca alley.”

“People are more informed,” said Rui Alves, a former sailor who founded Orcas.pt to help sailors connect and discuss the issue. Mr. Alves says he has been surprised at the site’s popularity — when he started it in October 2022, about 10 people joined. Now, there are almost 2,000.

“We have the local sailors, Portuguese and Spanish, and we have these sailors coming from the U.K. to cross the Atlantic,” he said.

More established groups like the Cruising Association, a Britain-based group for sailors, have also been tracking accounts from crews and collaborating with researchers to offer up-to-date information . “Sailors working together with appropriate scientists is the best approach to finding a solution,” Paul Lingard, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement.

“It’s the talk of the town in the sailing community,” said Emma Gore, a yacht sailor who found advice from Facebook groups helpful when she encountered an orca off the coast of Morocco. “Everybody is a bit on edge.”

Sail away, sail away, sail away.

Do any of the deterrents posed by sailors work? Researchers are skeptical that scattering sand or changing the color of a boat’s hull (avoiding black is one suggestion) do much. They also caution that some of the suggested methods — like throwing firecrackers into the water or using pingers, devices that transmit high-pitched signals underwater — could hurt the animals, which are considered endangered.

There are plans, according to the Cruising Association, to test out an acoustic device that could deter orcas from approaching without causing harm to them. And biologists are tracking the animals , some working with the Spanish government to understand how adjusting boat movements could minimize the chance of interactions.

For now, researchers and authorities say, the only real solution is to sail in shallower waters and move away as fast as possible during an orca encounter.

“The solution is to leave the area,” said Renaud de Stephanis, a biologist and coordinator for the nonprofit research group CIRCE. He’s part of a project that is satellite-tagging orcas to better track their movements as they chase tuna along the coastline. Mr. de Stephanis said it was clear that the orcas had learned how to break rudders, and research this year suggested that not stopping a boat could minimize the animals’ opportunities to do so.

Mr. Alves, the Orcas.pt founder, said, “I think long term it will be that we know where they are — and we avoid that area.” Many sailors are already taking that advice to heart and say they will stop sailing through any orca lanes until a solution is found.

“I do worry that people will resort to more drastic measures if we don’t find harmless solutions soon,” said Mr. Rutsch, the German sailor. Detours to avoid the orcas could add days, or even weeks, to a journey, and shallow waters open boats up to other dangers like underwater rocks and fishing nets.

“No sailor really wants to hurt any orcas,” Mr. Rutsch added. “That is the big conundrum here.”

He was tense during a crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar last week, he said, and took a flare and a foghorn in case of another encounter.

“Luckily this time,” he said. “We were only briefly scared by some dolphins.”

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

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Whale ‘pingers’ trialled to deter orcas

• Helen Fretter
• December 5, 2023

An Edinburgh-based company is trialling a new acoustic device with the aim to deter orca from 'attacking' yachts as problems continue off the Portuguese coast

A new acoustic deterrent device is to be tested in the waters off Portugal to see if it will deter killer whales from making contact with yachts.

Concerns have been raised about the orcas’ behaviour after three yachts were sunk following damage caused by the orcas striking or biting them this spring. It remains unclear as to whether the cetaceans are behaving intentionally aggressively, or playing, but over 500 interactions have been recorded since the phenomenon was first observed in 2020. It’s believed over 250 incidents have resulted in damage to a boat, 60 incurring serious damage.

The new acoustic deterrent device has been created by the Edinburgh-based GenusWave. The Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology – known as TAST – is designed to trigger the instinctive startle reflex, which causes an involuntary flight response – compelling the targeted animals to flee the area.

TAST was originally developed to deter seals from getting entangled in fishing nets, and has been modified to work on sea lions and orca.

Trials in Norwegian fishing grounds in 2022 and 2021 showed an 85% reduction in orca sightings on the fishing grounds during playback of the audio signals compared to before the sounds were emitted. Tracking the orca also showed that they quickly returned to the site when the noise subsided.

Portuguese conservation group Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF) and GenusWave plan to begin sea trials off the Portuguese coast this autumn. Skippers transiting through the area are asked to still report any orca sightings online at theca.org.uk/orcas

If the trials are successful it’s anticipated that GenusWave devices could be made available for yachts within the year.

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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.

Premium Content

Rogue orcas are thriving on the high seas—and they’re eating big whales

A fourth type of Pacific killer whale may live miles offshore from California and Oregon, preying on whales, other dolphins, and sea turtles.

Most orcas tend to stick to coastlines, from the Antarctic dwellers that make waves to knock seals off ice floes to the liver-extracting brothers around Cape Town . But now, scientists have found what could be a brand-new population of killer whales: Animals that ply the high seas, hunting large whales and other sizable prey.

These open-ocean denizens have been spotted at numerous locations far from Oregon and California, many of them well beyond the continental shelf, where waters can reach depths of 15,000 feet,   according to a recent study in Aquatic Mammals .

“There haven’t been any real studies, at least in the North Pacific, looking at killer whales in the open ocean,” says study leader Josh McInnes , a master’s candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.  

“It was kind of a shock when … we saw animals that were out in this open ocean habitat and were completely different from the other ecotypes we know.”

Killer whales in the Pacific are grouped into three ecotypes: Residents, which live close to shore and eat salmon and other fish; offshores, which live farther out and also eat fish; and transients, also called Bigg’s, the only orcas previously known to eat mammals.   (See 13 fantastic photos of orcas.)

Scientists could not match the 49 whales in the new study with any known orcas through photos and descriptions, which are based on their unique dorsal fins and saddle patches, the gray or white pattern on an orca's back.  

This means the animals are either a subgroup of the transient ecotype or an entirely unique population, says McInnes, who is also a research associate with the Pacific Wildlife Foundation.

The team could also differentiate the population, dubbed the oceanics, from other known orcas due to scars or bite marks from the parasitic cookie-cutter shark, which only occur in the deep ocean.

Beyond individual variations, the oceanics don't look like other known ecotypes, for example sporting a large gray saddle patch or no saddle patch at all.

“The open ocean doesn’t support a lot of large predators; it’s often described as a giant desert, so we weren’t expecting to find so many different animals, so we’re excited to carry on more research,” McInnes says.

“We really just don't know yet what is happening with the killer whales in the open ocean. This is the mystery behind what we hope to do next.”  

Following the prey

Our knowledge of orcas living in the open ocean is limited, as it’s difficult to find the widely distributed animals in a boat.

Yet the recent paper, a mixture of literature review and new observations, discovered nine instances in which marine mammal researchers, fishermen, and tourists observed whales in the northern Pacific Ocean between 1997 and 2021.

In the first documented incident, researchers watched a large pod of killer whales attack a herd of nine adult female sperm whales, managing to separate one from the pack and kill it. Other pods also hunted and ate an elephant seal, a pygmy sperm whale, a Risso’s dolphin, and a leatherback sea turtle.

With detailed records from each such encounter, the researchers plotted geo-referenced locations, determined water depth, and compared photos in databases to determine that the 49 whales sighted could potentially be a new ecotype.  

It’s possible that this new population formed as prey drew them farther from shore.

“Mammal-eating killer whales are doing well, and their numbers are increasing as seal and other whale populations have rebounded since whaling and sealing became illegal,” says Robert Pitman , a marine ecologist at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, who wasn’t involved in the study.

While prey overall is less abundant in deep-sea waters, killer whales may still find that habitat is more appealing than competing with the larger populations of resident whales closer to shore, he says.   (Watch video: sperm whales vs. orcas.)

To this end, McInnes and colleagues hope this study will spark efforts to document the new whale population through genetic sampling, satellite tagging, acoustic tracking, further photo identification, and additional field observation.

Climate change is affecting some populations of killer whales , such as those in Antarctica, which depend on seals that live on the rapidly decreasing ice. On the U.S. West Coast, a decline in salmon has reduced a population off Puget Sound , Washington.

Worldwide, however, the species is thriving, and coming more into contact with people in coastal areas. Orcas ramming and even sinking boats off Spain made headlines in 2023, with some people rooting for the animals as fighting back against human domination .

“Killer whales are probably the most widely distributed vertebrate on the planet. They are everywhere,” Pitman says.

With many tourist cruises available worldwide, he encourages everyone to put seeing a killer whale, whose males can reach lengths of 27 feet, on their bucket list.  

“This is the biggest apex predator we have on the planet today. We haven't seen anything like it since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.”  

Related Topics

• ORCA (KILLER WHALE)
• ANIMAL ATTACKS
• SPERM WHALE

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