Orcas continue to attack boats off the southern coast of Spain. Hundreds of such incidents have been recorded over the past three years. Scientists are faced with an enigma.
When the killer whales suddenly emerge from the water, everyone grabs their cameras. That’s why there are many videos floating around the Internet documenting the attacks. Like what the Chron posted: It shows orcas swimming around a sailboat and the boat then rocks.
Later, the ship took on water and had to be towed away by the Coast Guard. A nightmare for sailors. That’s what happened to Friedrich Sommer too. “We were attacked around 2.30pm by a group of three or four orcas,” he told AFP. “We saw them approaching the boat – and 30 seconds later the rudder was damaged. They attacked the rudder directly, hit it full force.”
“This is not normal behavior”
It is now being repaired in the port of the coastal town of Barbate. Others were less fortunate: their boat sank completely. Such incidents occur repeatedly between the Spanish and Moroccan coasts. At least no one has been hurt so far.
Jose Luis García is responsible for the ocean program of the environmental protection organization WWF in Spain. He says: “This is not normal behavior in the killer whale population in the Strait of Gibraltar.” It’s about the behavior of individual families. Killer whales are family animals, group animals. “They are very intelligent and transmit knowledge through sounds, so maybe that has something to do with it. We still don’t know the reasons for the behavior, so it’s difficult to plan measures to make them stop behaving.”
Playful behavior or enemy attack?
The animals seem to be a family of 39 members. Some researchers suspect that it is the mother who incites the other animals to attack. Although “attack” is probably the wrong word – after all, they don’t attack food, but boats. Researchers therefore prefer to speak of “interaction” neutrally.
Whale researcher Renaud de Stephanis explains: “We are working with different hypotheses: from a playful behavior to an enemy attack. We are examining the data and now we need to exchange ideas – with other researchers from European and world organizations. We cannot give a definitive answer yet, but we are getting closer to it.”
Satellite-based app displays orcas
It’s possible that the mother whale had bad experiences with fishing boats – and therefore targeted them. But perhaps the animals are simply interested in showing others what they can do – pure bragging rights.
After all, orcas are not dangerous to humans. They prefer tuna. And yet, sailors must avoid animals. A new satellite-enabled app is now helping them with that. This shows where the orcas are likely to be at the moment. So that there are as few unpleasant encounters as possible.