We see, in some of the videos, the sailing boat turning almost 180 degrees. Reports of boats being attacked by killer whales along the coast of Spain and Portugal date back to July. Renaud, though, does admit being frustrated and genuinely worried by the orcas’ behaviour. 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Renaud worries that this could be a tipping point that could bring the animals into direct conflict with the fishermen, who may see their livelihoods as well as their safety on the line. Read about our approach to external linking. Scientists and those who are used to sailing the Gibraltar Straits are baffled and concerned about recent attacks on boats in the area by pods (or possibly a particular pod) of orca, The Guardian reported. Baffled scientists are trying to work out why killer whales seem to have declared war on Spanish fishing boats. The two scientists are now part of a group carrying out an informal investigation into this strange, potentially dangerous behaviour. But there is one conclusion the scientists have confidently drawn from their investigation and from their years of observing these killer whales: they were playing. A pod of orcas moving toward a boat in northern Spain Credit: Newsflash. It led the Portuguese coastguard to ban small sailing vessels from a stretch of sea where some of the incidents had been reported. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, orcas were captured for display in marine parks and, to the delight of thousands of spectators, to perform tricks with a trainer. In September three orcas repeatedly rammed a sailing boat off the coast of Spain for 45 minutes as it traveled to Scotland. Later that same day, a Spanish naval yacht, Mirfak, lost part of its rudder after an encounter with orcas. And the game is getting worse and worse.”. As top predators, aggression, dominance and shows of strength are likely to be key elements of any formative “play”. But for David, the skipper who encountered the killer whales, the word “play” sits uncomfortably with what he felt that evening. “They were right at the back of the boat.”. Killer whales live, hunt and move in very closely connected family pods: tightly knit, matriarch-led groups that - in some populations - have even been shown to have their own pod-specific dialects. This revelation caused the headlines to kick up an anthropomorphic notch: killer whales were “orchestrating revenge attacks”, said the New York Post. The giant mammals traveled alongside the boat in San Sebastian Credit: Newsflash. At one point, one of the larger animals came right to the stern and flipped onto its back – you could see its bright white underside.”. A marine investigation is ongoing into a spate of attacks by rogue Killer Whales on sailboats in the Atlantic. The first reported incident was back in July, the most recent at the end of October. They were ramming the keel, there was this horrible echo, I thought they could capsize the boat,” Morris said. “So then we were just drifting. Her 46-foot boat was attacked in July, as a pugnacious pod of killer whales spun her boat 180 degrees and disabled the engine, causing it to drift into the Strait of Gibraltar shipping lanes where it had to wait an hour and a half for rescue. Since killer whales learn from each other, the young animals in that pod learned the same trick. “I was definitely preparing to ask the Portuguese coastguard to send a helicopter to get us off.”. Accounts of the incidents suggested that the animals were deliberately targeting sailing boats. “They can weigh 4-5 tonnes and when they play they really play,” says Renaud. “He said: ‘It looks like we have some large dolphins,’” recalls David. So orca behaviour that looks like anger, grief or joy is “probably exactly what they’re experiencing”. She and her colleagues scanned the brain of a deceased captive orca for a study back in 2004. A spate of attacks on boats by killer whales along the coast of Portugal and Spain have left ocean scientists baffled. Which brings us to a concerning development of orcas attacking boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal recently. In August, a French-flagged vessel radioed the coastguard to say it was “under attack” from killer whales. “They love it. No human has been hurt in any of these incidents, and on the advice of the scientists, the coastguard has modified its language. No sound for five minutes, then nothing for 10. Teeth marks were also found along the hull. So far, the researchers have not worked out which family “the three Gladises” belong to. “They always seem to go for the rudder, and I think that’s because it’s a mobile part of the vessel,” Ruth explains. The encounter is one of at least 40 similar incidents in the area. And they were behaving very strangely. Killer whale pods have been attacking boats in Spain and Portugal since July (Credit: Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda) Killer whales, or orcas, are the largest members of the oceanic dolphin family. The incidents were similar, commencing with a loss of steering and violent movements of the wheel/ helm, followed by whales breaking the surface near the boats. “When they hunt, you don’t hear or see them. “It was really scary for the people, I can understand that,” says Ruth. Life alone in a concrete pool certainly bears little to no resemblance to the natural existence of a wild orca. But there is a bigger reason for Ruth, Renaud and the team to try to adjust the language associated with these incidents. Behind international headlines about “rogue killer whales”, “orchestrated” orca attacks and the videos shared thousands of times on social media, there is a forensic marine science investigation that is still trying to work out what is driving these complex, intelligent and highly social marine mammals to behave in this way. They compared footage of the incidents to a catalogue of images captured and used by CIRCE to identify the animals. Sailor Victoria Morris described what she dubbed an "orchestrated" attack by a group of nine orcas which surrounded her boat and rammed it for over an hour. “Killer whales sighted in the Rias Bajas area. There are published accounts of the animals smacking seabirds with their flippers and repeatedly catching and releasing them in their mouths. “It’s getting worse and worse,” says Dr Renaud de Stephanis, another biologist involved in the investigation. “I looked at this animal - and it was jet black and brilliant white.”. “If that fractures, you’re really in trouble,” he says. During the summer of 2020, the strangest of summers for so many of us, a group of killer whales off the coast of Spain and Portugal began to act very strangely indeed. Three orcas rammed a boat off the coast of Spain as it was travelling to Scotland. The 2013 movie Blackfish made the case that Tilikum suffered mental trauma because of life in captivity, and that drove him to attack people. Then David noticed the lights of a fishing boat in the distance. Since summer, the sailors have reported that orcas … On social media, amid gifs and jokes about the ocean fighting back, there were comments suggesting people on their yachts should “stay in their mansions” and that the orcas had been enlisted in a “fight against yacht owners”. They don’t just see the world, they hear it, echolocating and building a picture of their world based on a stream of visual and acoustic information that is all processed at the same time. The only other encounter he had had with an orca was more than 20 years ago in a Vancouver aquarium, but he was in no doubt that he was looking at a group of killer whales. “I don’t frighten easily and this was terrifying,” skipper David Smith recalls of a late evening in October when his boat was approached by what looked at first like dolphins. SAILING has been banned on a stretch of Spain’s northern coastline after killer whales badly battered boats in the area sparking fears for crew's safety. Victoria Morris was on a 46-foot boat in Spain on July 29 when an orca attacked the vessel. The biological puzzle of why this is happening remains an important one to solve. Radioaviso en Rías Bajas por avistamiento de orcas en zona. “I just find it weird. Over the past two months, orcas have damaged around a dozen boats off of Spain and Portugal, baffling marine biologists and sailors. Michael thinks there is something fundamental about our mentality around big predators. “But we don’t want to call it an attack. “From what I’m seeing, it’s mainly two of those guys [the Gladises] in particular that are just going crazy,” he says. All rights reserved. “I’ve seen them hunting,” says Renaud. “I don’t have the evidence yet,” he says, “but I would put my hand in the fire and say that this is the pod that the Gladises have come from.”. This specific population of orcas is listed as critically endangered and protected by law. The crew moved the boat closer to the coast - back within radio range. So can any scientist, documentary-maker or sailor understand the mind of such a complex and intelligent marine predator? “After about an hour, we were confident they’d left us.”. The pod that “invented” taking bluefin tuna from the fishing lines has increased in number. A group of scientists investigating a spate of attacks by orcas on yachts off the coast of Spain in recent months has said their unprecedented behaviour may be a … “If they start behaving in a way we don’t like, then they’re mean, aggressive and evil,” he says. When they reached Gibraltar to carry out a more thorough check for damage, their boat became another piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation. Killer whales have been carrying out revenge attacks on boats in Spain. In July, a sailing vessel had to be towed back to shore after a group of orcas repeatedly hit and damaged its rudder. The animals live, migrate and socialise in closely connected family groups that have developed different hunting techniques and modes of communication. “In some cases they can move the whole boat with it. For some two hours, a group of killer whales rammed the underside of the 45ft (13.7m) yacht he was sailing off the coast of Portugal. “The noise was really scary. Neuroscientist Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project, is one of the few people to have seen inside the brain of a killer whale. And don’t know why,” he sighs. As the light faded, the reverberating thuds from beneath the boat continued. Through his conservation research organisation, CIRCE, he carried out work that helped the animals garner their officially protected status. With their VHF radio out of range, they had to use the satellite phone to contact the coastguard, who advised them to switch off the motor and take down the sails. That’s an important lesson to learn.”, Graphics: Gerry Fletcher, Rafael Fernández/Turmares Tarifa, Additional images: Alamy, The Anatomical Record, David Smith. And the number of “thefts” from the boats has also gone up. “There could be an element of play, there could be an element of aggression - of trying to prove themselves.”. It just seems to be something they really like and that’s it.”. As David puts it: “They came to us, not the other way around.”. Several scientists think the killers of the deep are attacking yachts and boats due to injuries several of them sustained over the summer from rudders, according to The Guardian. Ruth now works at the Madeira Whale Museum, but she studied this population of orcas for six years - they were the subject of her PhD. A group of rogue killer whales has been attacking boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal, and it is getting worse and worse, experts said. In this case, he was part of a team delivering a catamaran from France to Gibraltar. Fellow sailor, 31-year-old Spaniard Alfonso Gomez-Jordana Martin, reported a similar experience less than a week prior, when a pod of four orcas attacked his 40-foot boat for over an hour and “nearly dislocated the helmsman’s shoulder and spun the whole yacht through 120 degrees.”. “The real truth is not either one of those things. Killer whales have been ramming yachts and boats off the coast of Northern Spain and researchers are puzzled by their behavior. The investigation’s conclusions, the official advice for boats about how to avoid these potentially dangerous interactions - even the news stories - hinge on understanding what drives that animals’ behaviour. Her boat needed to be towed to safety as a result of the damage sustained in the attack, which included a destroyed rudder. “If they see that they have the power to move something really big, maybe that’s really impressive for them.”. They seemed to be going for the rudder, the wheel would just start spinning really fast every time there was an impact.”. Families generally stick closely together, with long-lived grandmothers helping to raise young and to teach youngsters to hunt. Experts who study some of the most intractable human-wildlife conflicts in the world, where people may feel their lives are threatened by the proximity of large predators and that their only option is to kill them, have pointed to the role of “provocative language” in fuelling these situations. And for some of the most social animals on Earth, Dr Michael Weiss from the University of Exeter and the Center for Whale Research says, “when they play together, it could be building important social bonds”. 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