In 1987, a bizarre story made headlines that revealed juvenile killer whales in the Pacific had been killing salmon and wearing them like hats on their heads.
The odd behavior was spotted in several pods but had stopped by the following summer and was seen as a “transient cultural fad”.
Now it appears that teenage orcas off the coast of Europe have a new fad that involves attacking sailboats.
Groups of youths have been spotted attacking boats off the coasts of France, Portugal and Spain – baffling scientists as to why.
Twitter user Heidi Heidi posted about the bizarre behavior Twitterwhich describes the orcas as “teenage hooligans”.
Last year a British sailor was surrounded by a pod of killer whales trying to overturn his boat
WHY HUNT ORCAS JAWS?
Orcas are the great white’s only natural predators.
Scientists have found evidence that they slash open the sharks and eat their fatty liver.
Scientists speculate that this behavior may be behind the disappearance of great white sharks from the waters of False Bay off the coast of Cape Town.
Great Whites visited the area between June and October each year as part of their annual winter hunting season.
They were drawn to the region by what is known as Seal Island, a rock that is home to a huge colony of seals.
However, they have fallen victim to orcas themselves – and are in retreat.
Last year a British sailor was surrounded by a pod of killer whales trying to overturn his boat.
Alan Bruce, 63, was manning a 44-foot sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar with Frenchman Stephen Peare, 49, when four orcas suddenly began ramming and rocking the ship.
The veteran seamen retreated below decks and radioed for help before being harassed by the animals for 90 minutes as they repeatedly maneuvered the boat’s hull.
They also intentionally broke the rudder to paralyze the yacht.
Ester Kristine Storkson, a medical student from Norway, also witnessed a pod of orcas “ramming” her father’s yacht off the coast of France.
Speaking to NPR, she said, “They rammed the boat. she [hit] repeated to us…which gives us the impression that this was a coordinated attack.’
The attack damaged the yacht’s rudder to such an extent that Ms Storkson and her father were forced to abandon their voyage and carefully go ashore in Brest.
Meanwhile, two boats were reportedly sunk by orcas off the coast of Portugal last month.
“On Sunday, July 31, there were two “orca attacks” near Sines in the early morning of July 31,” writes Portugal Resident.
“One ended in the sinking of a boat and the rescue of five crew members.
“The second involved a smaller sailing boat en route from Lisbon to the Algarve with two men on board.
“The men were both asleep when the orca struck the boat with considerable force, biting the rudder and immobilizing it.
“The boat was later towed into dry dock due to growing concern in the sailing community over these incidents.”
While the reason for the behavior remains unclear, scientists suspect that orcas like the water pressure created by a ship’s propeller.
While the reason for the behavior remains unclear, scientists suspect that orcas like the water pressure created by a ship’s propeller.
Orcas teach each other how to STAND fish and their fishery leftovers
Orcas may be known as killer whales, but they may have a different crime in mind.
This is the conclusion of experts from Deakin University, who found that the marine mammals teach each other how to steal fish and their remains from fisheries.
The researchers studied the feeding behavior of orcas living off the coast of the Crozet Islands in the southern Indian Ocean between 2010 and 2017.
They found that the number of local orcas, which subsist by stealing Patagonian hake from fisheries, increased significantly during this period.
Speaking to NPR, Renaud de Stephanis, president and coordinator of CIRCE Conservación Information and Research, explained, “We think they’re asking to get the propeller in the face.”
When the animals experience a propeller that doesn’t move, “they get kind of frustrated and that’s why they break [it]’ added de Stephanis.
However, that would not explain an encounter off the coast of Spain last year in which orcas attacked a boat with a spinning propeller.
Researchers believe the attacks are carried out by just a few juvenile male orcas and may just be another passing cultural fad.
Other examples of passing cultural fads among juvenile orcas include playing with shrimp and crab traps and wearing dead fish on their heads as hats.
In a 2004 study, researchers at Dalhousie University explained: “One example is the ‘dead salmon-carrying’ fad of the well-studied ‘southern-dwelling’ fish-eating orcas in the Puget Sound area of the Northeast Pacific.
“It started in 1987 with a female in K-Pod carrying around a dead salmon, spread to the other two flocks in the southern residential community over a period of 5 to 6 weeks, and then stopped.
“The following summer it was noticed a couple of times, and then never again.”
Fortunately, no humans have been killed by orcas in the wild.
The news comes shortly after a great white shark washed up on a beach after being brutally mauled by two orcas.
Orcas have devised a unique method of getting at their victims’ valuable organs, launching repeated attacks until the shark tires.
Then one dives in to kill, attacking from below with its jagged teeth, ripping open the great white beneath the liver with surgical precision.
The news comes shortly after a great white shark washed up on a beach after being brutally mauled by two orcas
The organ falls free and the killer whales devour what is a delicacy to them. So far, nine great white shark carcasses have washed up without their enormous livers.
In the most recent incident, a butchered 2.70m tall white male was washed up in the morning surf at the tourist site in Mossel Bay, Western Province, South Africa.
Local resident Cristiaan Stopforth said: “It was just so sad to see this amazing majestic animal lying lifeless because of these orcas – this is the second in two months.”
Marine biologist Alison Towner said: “It is sad that all shark carcasses in South Africa have to be autopsied and it never gets easier.”
WHAT ARE TYPE D KILLER WHALES?
First identified in 1955, these majestic creatures have only been sighted a few times in the last 70 years.
When they were first discovered after a mass stranding in New Zealand in the 1950s, they were thought to be a mutated species of the world’s most common orca species.
They are so different from other orcas that some experts believe they should even be considered their own species.
Compared to regular dolphins, these orcas have bulbous heads and sharper dorsal fins.
First identified in 1955, these majestic creatures have only been sighted a few times in the last 70 years
The spots above their eyes are smaller than in other species – A, B, and C – all of which are known to live in Antarctic waters.
They are particularly distinguished by their small eyespots.
They have been seen eating Patagonian hake, but it is not known if they only eat fish.
Experts believe that if they’re a new species, they could be the largest undescribed animal left on the planet.