The rudder of this ship was damaged by killer whales. JORGE GUERRERO / Contributor / Getty Images
- Killer whales have rammed boats and ripped off oars in the waters off southern Spain.
- Insider spoke to three orca experts to better understand why these encounters are happening.
- All experts agree that while these orcas may feel like an attack, they just want to play.
European sailors first reported an increase in orca encounters off the coasts of Spain and Portugal in 2020. Interactions have continued to increase since then and are now happening every day.
Not only do killer whales ram boats with their heads and tear off oars with their teeth, they’ve also managed to sink three ships so far this year.
“They obviously take great pleasure in these encounters,” Andrew Trites, director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Insider.
But Trites isn’t talking about malicious pleasure, even though it might feel like it to the people whose boats take a beating. Sailor Werner Schaufelberger described his encounter with orcas in May as “brutal”.
“They’re probably socializing and talking to each other about their adventures, unaware of the terror they create in their moments of joy,” Trites said.
Trites is one of several orca experts that Insider spoke to, all of whom agree that the orcas are just having fun and probably have no ill will towards the boats or people on board.
This idea is at odds with a darker theory that the orcas are attacking boats because a traumatized killer whale named White Gladis is taking revenge. And other orcas mimic their behavior.
However, none of the experts Insider spoke to were convinced that was the case.
“I definitely think orcas are capable of complex emotions,” Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, told Insider. “But we haven’t seen anything like it anywhere else in the world. And we gave the orcas every reason to want revenge on us.”
Tilikum, the orca in Blackfish, has killed three people. Suzanne Allee/Magnolia Pictures
Shields points to the long history of humans harming the orca population, from shooting killer whales while they were fishing to the live capture years of the ’60s and ’70s when people separated orca offspring from their families, to display them in aquariums.
And yet these situations didn’t result in wild killer whales attacking boats, Shields said. Orcas in captivity have attacked and killed humans, however there are no records of orcas killing humans in the wild.
The orcas are trying to play
According to Shields, the orcas’ natural curiosity and playfulness are likely the reason for these encounters, rather than revenge.
Orcas are very social and inquisitive animals that often engage with their surroundings, Shields said.
In the Salish Sea off the coast of Washington, for example, it’s not uncommon for orcas to play with crab traps, dragging them around for a few minutes or hours before finally losing interest, Shields said.
“It’s really similar to Spain for me,” Shields said. “It’s the same kind of behavior, they might think, ‘Hey, there’s this device around me, I’m going to play with it for a while and then move on.'”
Hanne Strager, a mammalian marine biologist and author of The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Ocras, agrees that curiosity is the likely cause.
In fact, Strager does not classify these encounters as “attacks” or attempts by orcas to harm people and their property, but rather as examples of orca exploration.
Cavan Images / Raffi Maghdessian / Getty Images
“I have no doubt that it feels like an assault for the people on the boat,” Strager told Insider. “But from an orca perspective, I don’t think it’s aggressive. Just because it feels and looks very dramatic to us doesn’t mean it’s dramatic to them as well.”
Orcas find boats stimulating
Experts agree that orcas are definitely after sailboats, but probably because there’s something stimulating and exciting about “playing” with boats that makes them want to repeat the behavior and teach it to others in their group.
According to Trites, orcas might just enjoy the feeling of ramming into boats.
“Orcas are very tactile and sensitive to touch,” Trites told Insider. “During my research, I noticed how often they touch and encounter each other while swimming. It’s just like with humans. We need to be touched.”
Orcas might also be lured in by a boat speeding through the water and have fun chasing it, Trites said. In fact, the more people on a boat riot or try to rush away, the more exciting the event is for the animal and the more likely they are to try to ram the boat again, Trites said.
“You can’t outrun a killer whale,” Trites said. “Just turn off the engine, leave the rudder up and get as boring as possible.”
Whether playful or not, this behavior could endanger the lives of orcas
Ultimately, while orca experts have good reason to believe the animals are just being playful, it’s impossible to know what they’re thinking.
Jason Edwards/Getty Images
And that uncertainty makes people uneasy, especially as these encounters become more frequent and potentially dangerous for humans and orcas.
“I think tensions are escalating,” Shields said. “And I think it’s only a matter of time before a whale is injured or killed.”
By better tracking these incidents, hopefully sailors can avoid high-risk areas and, after enough “boring” encounters with boats, the orcas eventually move on, Strager said.
Until then, Trites said, it’s important to remember that these are endangered creatures that are unlikely to be out to harm us.
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