Playfulness or revenge? Why orcas keep attacking boats in Spain and Portugal

Reports of aggressive encounters with orcas off the Iberian Coast began in May 2020 and are becoming more frequent, according to a study published June 2022 in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

The most recent attack happened on May 4, 2023, when three orcas struck a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar, off the coast of Spain, and pierced the rudder, several media reported.

Two days earlier, a group of six orcas assailed a sailboat navigating the strait. Greg Blackburn, who was aboard the vessel, said a mother orca appeared to teach her calf how to charge into the rudder. "It was definitely some form of education, teaching going on," Blackburn told 9 news.

(Image: David Ramírez / Unsplash)

And Blackburn may not be far off, as experts noted in the 2022 study, that orcas are social creatures that can easily learn and reproduce behaviors performed by others.

But why are orcas attacking boats and teaching their young ones how to do it too? Researchers think that a traumatic event may have triggered a change in the behavior of one orca, which the rest of the population has learned to imitate.

Alfredo López Fernández, a biologist and representative of the Grupo de Trabajo Orca Atlántica (Atlantic Orca Working Group), told Live Sience that they suspect that a female orca they call White Gladis suffered a "critical moment of agony" that flipped a behavioral switch.

(Image: Tim Cole / Unsplash)

"The orcas are doing this on purpose, of course, we don't know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day," López Fernandez said.

Other experts however, think that the behavior is mere playfulness. Deborah Giles, an orca researcher, told Live Science that orcas are “incredibly curious and playful animals and so this might be more of a play thing as opposed to an aggressive thing,"

While there have been no serious injuries among those trapped by the killer whales, scientists are still worried.

As the number of incidents grow, there is increased concern both for sailors and for the Iberian orca subpopulation, which is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN red list.

The orca is traditionally known as a "killer whale", but this is absolutely unjustified, as they are peaceful animals. Biologists insist that the events in the Strait of Gibraltar cannot be regarded as attacks and that the animals do not want to eat humans.

(Image: Rémi Boudousquié / Unsplash)

Coordinated attacks by orcas on white sharks have been observed in the San Francisco Bay. However, these attacks were about sheer survival, biologists claim. They emphasize that human meat does not enter the menu of orcas.

Killer whales usually eat large fish and seals, if there are any in their area.

(Image: Keith Luke / Unsplash)

Orcas, like other whales, are very intelligent animals. They use tricks to hunt, such as pretending that they are stranded on a beach to fool the seals and catch them by surprise. They also gather socially in small groups and play; sometimes with boats...

A curiosity: male killer whales live, on average, 17 years; female killer whales can get as old as 29. However, there have also been cases of 100-year-old orcas.

(Image: Ryan Stone / Unsplash)

The capture of orcas for confinement in marine parks is a highly debatable practice. Animals that usually move hundreds of kilometers a day through the sea are suddenly locked into swimming pools. Their brain suffers, which sometimes causes them to attack their caretakers.

Experts say, if a group of orcas "engages" with you, it is recommended to stop the engine, lower sails, leave the helm, and let your boat be shaken for as long as the killer whales want. Above all, do not approach the group.

(Image: Daniel Kuruvilla / Unsplash)