Orcas along the Spanish coast are once again attacking the boat, leaving behind a crew who is bathed in the destroyed roundness.
Orcas (Orcinus orca), or a small population of killer whales, have recently developed a trend to damage boats from the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Researchers are still studying this behavior, but they believe that Orca is likely to be playful rather than aggressive.
On August 21, Orcas tore the helm from a German yacht at the mouth of the Vigo Estuary in Galicia, Spanish newspaper Faro de Vigo reported. Orca was then playing on the yacht, but plunged in when he was safely towed.
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The Civil Security Force of Pontevedra, a Spanish law enforcement agency, shared a video of the yacht rescue on social platform X, writing that Orca attacked several yachts. It is unclear exactly how many boats were targeted prior to this post, but there have been incidents since.
For example, on Saturday (August 30), Faro de Vigo reported that Orcas had destroyed the rudder of a traditional wooden sailing vessel off the coast of O-Grove in the mouth of the Alusa Estuary, opening the leak to another yacht within the mouth of the Pontevedra Estuary.
Valentín Otero, the owner of the ship that targeted O Grove, told Faro De Vigo that he had heard two blows on the ship before he found Orcas. Otero and his crew reported a line of small Orcas swimming in line with larger ORCAs, about 23 feet (7 meters) of the group.
“The truth is, we were very scared. In fact, we were totally surprised when we realised Orca was hitting a boat,” Otero said in a translated statement.
Related: See Orca’s pod pretending to own in a creepy training session
Iberian orcas are a highly endangered Orca subgroup that is thought to have fewer than 40 individuals. The group has been attacking boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal since 2020. The initial report suggested that Iberian Orca could carry out a revenge on the ship, which has been dismissed by many ORCA experts.
In many cases, encounters involve a young orca going straight for the rocks below the sailing boat. Scientists have suggested that orcas are likely bored teenagers with more free time since the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus Thynnus) population (the local favorite prey) recovered.
ORCA works varied and complex. Researchers observed species engaged in complex social rituals, from gently muttering each other’s tongues to falling down one another as if they were in an aquatic mosh pit. Orca populations also have their own dialects similar to human language, allowing them to develop their own “fashions” such as swimming dead salmon on their heads.
There is no reason to suspect that Iberian Orcas are targeting people on boats. Orcas are intense predators known to hunt a wide variety of different prey, from tuna to seals, sharks and even whales. However, each population has a specific diet, and none of them involve eating humans. There are only a handful of documented cases of wild orcas attacking humans, and all of these reported cases have important warnings, such as the likelihood that people will be mistaken for seals.
