Orcas are ramming boats off the Spanish coast, puzzling experts

A pod of orcas repeatedly crashed into a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar this week, damaging it enough to require Spanish rescuers to come to the aid of its four crew members.

This is the latest episode in a puzzling trend in the behavior of orcas living on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula that has prompted researchers to search for the cause.

Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said the orcas repeatedly ran aground on the Mustique, a 20-meter boat sailing under the British flag, late Wednesday, causing the rudder to malfunction and damaging the hull. Rescuers had to pump out seawater before being towed to safety.

The alert reached the Spanish service via its British counterpart, which sent a distress call, the Spanish service said. A helicopter and a rescue boat were deployed to help the damaged boat to dock at Barbate.

This is the 24th incident registered by the service this year. The service has not provided data since last year.

But the Atlantic Orca Working Group, a team of Spanish and Portuguese marine researchers studying orcas near the Iberian Peninsula, said the incident was first reported three years ago. In 2020, the group recorded 52 such events, some of which resulted in steering failure. That increases to 197 in 2021 and to 207 in 2022.

The orcas seem to be targeting boats in a wide arc covering the west coast of the peninsula, from the waters near the Strait of Gibraltar to northwestern Spain’s Galicia.

According to the group, these orcas are a small group of about 35 that spend most of the year near the Iberian coast chasing bluefin tuna. The so-called Iberian orcas average from five to 6.5 meters, compared to the Antarctic orcas which can reach up to nine meters.

There were no reports of attacks on swimmers. The interaction in the vessel appears to cease after the vessel becomes immobilized.

Biologist Alfredo Lopez, from the University of Aveiro and a member of the research group, said that such an occurrence is rare – and very strange.

“In no case that we could see on video, we witnessed behavior that could be considered aggressive,” Lopez told The Associated Press on Friday. “He seemed calm, not like he was on the hunt.”

Lopez said that while the cause of the behavior is unknown, his group has identified 15 individual whales that have been involved. He said that 13 young whales, which can support the hypothesis that they are playing, while two adults, which can support the competing theory that their behavior is the result of some traumatic event with the boat.

In any case, he says the whales show that they are social animals.

“Orcs are animals with their own culture,” he said. “They send information to each other.”