Orca attacks on boats: researchers give possible reasons

Off the coast of Spain
Orca attacks on boats: researchers give possible reasons

Was a traumatic experience of a female orca the trigger for the attacks on boats? At least that could be an explanation.

© Elaine Thompson / Picture Alliance

Orcas off the Iberian Peninsula show surprisingly aggressive behavior. Again and again they ram boats, at least three have already sunk as a result. Researchers now have an assumption as to how the attacks take place and what the reason could be.

By Kai Stoppel

This article first appeared on n-tv.de

The Atlantic off Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar have become notorious in recent years due to numerous orca attacks. There have been several hundred incidents between orcas and boats off the Iberian Peninsula in recent years.

The attacks began in May 2020 and increased according to a report released in June 2022 study with time to. “Reports of incidents have been continuous since 2020 in places where killer whales live, be it in Galicia or in the Straits,” Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and co-author of the study, told the magazine “Live Science”. According to the study, most of the incidents were brief and caused only minor damage to the ships. But there were also more extreme events.

“The attacks were brutal”

In at least three incidents, the orcas sank boats. Most recently, in May of this year, a yacht was so badly damaged that it later went under. Three killer whales – two smaller and one larger – encountered the yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar off the Spanish coast on the night of May 4 and punctured the rudder. “The little ones shook the rudder while the big one kept backing up and rammed the ship from the side with full force,” Swiss skipper Werner Schaufelberger reported to the German magazine “Yacht”. “The attacks were brutal.”

According to an eyewitness report, six orcas had attacked a sailing boat two days earlier. Greg Blackburn, who was on the boat, reported 9news about the encounter filmed from the boat: “In one of the videos you can see the matriarch walking towards the oar and attacking the calf on the side. Then she falls back and the little calf comes around to grab it to try.” However, he did not perceive the behavior of the animals as aggressive, says Blackburn: “For me it was as if they were playing with the rudder.” The orcas finally let go of the boat, which was able to go to Tangiers, Morocco.


Orcas attack boats again – researchers explain possible cause of the behavior

Does an orca incite the others?

The attacks appear to be in a context of learning and imitation, say the researchers who published the study on the Strait of Gibraltar incidents. A female orca named “White Gladis” taught the aggressive behavior to other adult animals, whose offspring eventually imitated it, López Fernandez suspects. The researchers also found that in most cases the orcas attack the oar or the hull of the boat.

But the question is: Why are the orcas attacking the boats? “The orcas do it on purpose,” says López Fernandez. Neither the origin of the behavior nor the motivation are known. However, the researchers believe it is plausible that a traumatic experience by White Gladis, such as a collision with a boat or being trapped while fishing illegally, could have triggered the aggressive behavior.

Even blue whales are not safe from orcas

According to the scientists, other possible triggers could be the loss of prey or disturbance of the animals by boats. The study also points to the “natural curiosity” of the orcas. Orcas are highly intelligent animals and can teach each other new behaviors. According to a 2022 published study killer whales even hunt blue whales and are known to attacking sharks off the coast of South Africa.

The researchers warn in their study that the coordinated attacks on boats could pose a real threat to the safety of seafarers in the affected area if the situation worsens. But this situation also harbors risks for the orcas. They could injure themselves from attacks on the boats or be injured by sailors trying to protect their ships.

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