Orcas sank three boats off the coast of Portugal, but don't call them 'killer' just yet
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Three recent incidents of orcas seemingly attacking and sinking boats off the southwestern tip of Europe are drawing intense scrutiny over whether the animals deliberately swarmed the vessels and if they are learning the aggressive behavior from one another.
Encounters between orcas, or killer whales, and boats have been increasing since 2020, though no human injuries or deaths have been reported. In most cases, the whales have not sunk the boats.
The string of incidents since 2020 prompted one scientist in Portugal to say the attacks may indicate that the whales are intending to cause damage to sailing vessels. Others, however, are more skeptical, saying that while the behavior may be coordinated, it's not necessarily coordinated aggression.
"I think it gets taken as aggression because it's causing damage, but I don't think we can say that the motivation is aggressive necessarily," said Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington state.
At least 15 interactions between orcas and boats off the Iberian coast were reported in 2020, according to a study published last June in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
In November 2020, Portugal's National Maritime Authority issued a statement alerting sailors about "curious behavior" among juvenile killer whales. The statement said the whales may be attracted to rudders and propellers and may try to approach boats.
The subsequent sinkings have caused more alarm.
The most recent encounter occurred on May 4 off the coast of Spain. Three orcas struck the rudder and side of a sailing yacht, causing it to eventually sink, as was reported earlier this month in a German publication called Yacht.
One theory put forward by Alfredo Lopez Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, suggested that the aggression started from a female orca that was perhaps struck by a boat — a traumatic experience that caused her to start ramming sailing vessels. Lopez Fernandez, who co-authored the June 2022 study published in Marine Mammal Science, told Live Science that other orcas may have then picked up that behavior through social learning, which whales have been known to exhibit.
But Shields said orcas have not historically been known to be aggressive toward humans, even when they were being hunted and placed in captivity.
"They've certainly had reason to engage in that kind of behavior," she said. "There are places where they are shot at by fishermen, they've watched family members be taken from their groups into captivity in the '60s and '70s. And if something was going to motivate direct aggression, I would think something like that would have done it."
Shields added that there are no clear instances of killer whales exhibiting what could be thought of as revenge behavior against humans.
She said the recent attacks on boats are likely more consistent with what's known as "fad" behavior, which describes novel but temporary conduct from one whale that can be mimicked by others.
"It's kind of a new behavior or game that one whale seems to come up with, and it seems to spread throughout the population — sometimes for a matter of weeks or months, or in some cases years — but then in a lot of cases it just goes away," she said.
In the Pacific Northwest, for instance, Shields and her colleagues have observed fad behavior among Southern Resident killer whales who started carrying dead salmon around on their heads for a time before the behavior suddenly stopped.
Shields said the behavior of orcas off the Iberian coast may also be temporary.
"This feels like the same type of thing, where one whale played with a rudder and said: 'Hey, this is a fun game. Do you want to try it?' And it's the current fad for that population of orcas," she said.
While Shields did not dismiss the trauma response theory out of hand, she said it would be difficult to confirm without more direct evidence.
"We know their brains are wired to have really complex emotions, and so I think they could be capable of something like anger or revenge," she said. "But again, it's just not something that we've seen any examples of, and we've given them plenty of opportunities throughout the world to want to take revenge on us for various things. And they just choose not to."
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great, another reason not to go into the water...
Temporary or not I do not want to be the target of a killer whale.
Saw the movie "Orca" in the 70's and sure wouldn't want one pissed off at me.
It's hard to believe that Sea World used to put trainers in the water with them.
Thankfully the Orcas that have been in captivity for decades are being returned to the wild, it was sad to see such a beautiful animal hemmed into such small enclosure.
A few years ago one of the trainers was killed by an orca.
It was Sea World's main attraction for a while. They were even breeding them in captivity.
A few years ago one of the trainers was killed by an orca.
Her name was Dawn Brancheau and she was regarded as one of Sea World's best trainers.
What would scare the shit out of me is with them being pack hunters, while you have your eyes on one, there is probably another one behind you.
Nature is fighting back
Was snorkeling off of Key West once and a barracuda started following me.
Breathing, keeping an eye on it and swimming away proved to be problematic.
All I had was a knife at the time and realized that I was way overmatched.
Didn't even dare pull it out of the sheath because fish like to attack shiny things.
It finally lost interest and veered off. Longest five minutes of my life.
You definitely realize that you are on somebody else's turf in the ocean.
you're the sushi there...
I don’t swim in the ocean.
Boy Scout camp, a million years ago at this point, we had to swim 500 yards our and back in the ocean for our lifesaving badge. Black ass water off Catalina Island, goddamn seaweed brushing your legs, and having just seen Beast a couple weeks before…
Nah I am good.
Could be another take on this, at the bidding of animal rights activists, isn't it now illegal to touch or even swim with whales, maybe they want the attention we used to give them and are bumping the boats around knowing people are aboard at an attempt to get the people to come and swim around with them. They just miss us.
Nah, these fools have been straight up attacking. I saw an article about this the other day and this may be a pod led by a female that was traumatized by being caught in a fishnet or something. Basically she is now teaching the rest of the pod that boats/humans are bad.
She isn’t wrong.
more like another food source...
Possibly, but she needs to be shown that she is wrong.
oh yeah, and COH violation cuz you commented and I am a pussy.
There, there..... it'll be OK.
LOL, I hit where I aim. you were in no danger.
How would anyone know that, maybe we should sit her down and ask her.
Down in #12, Kavika posted an MSN story and the video, to me, looked like the Orca wanted to play. Their bumping the boat around gets them the result they maybe looking for by getting people into the water with them, if it was for a malicious reason, then why aren't they killing people?
Mmmhhhh..just another thing to keep an eye out for when sloshing around in the sea...
Along with the great whites, jelly fish, sting rays, stone fish, orcas etc etc..🦈🦈🦈
Is this the pod being led by the Orca that was traumatized by being caught in a fishnet or something along those lines?
Omg, could this truly be the first shots fired in the first interspecies war on planet earth? or, I guess our nets were the first shots, but still! How crazy would that be?
I've got access to some life size seal silhouette vinyl stickers suitable for the undersides of surf boards...
meh, you may be on to something...
If the fishing boats were smallish it might be a case of mistaken identity as Orcas are well known to predate on other whales (usually the young) and large sharks
those particular mammals aren't stupid, but I wouldn't be swimming around them wearing a dark bodysuit...
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Nnnahhh..that just makes you swim faster..one of the reasons us Aussies are fast swimmers..🐊🦈🐳
that's funny, Shona
I keep saying our overpopulation is a problem. Orcas and all animals need space too
Back in the late 70's I was stationed at Naval Air Station at Whidbey Island, WA. I lived near a old concrete seaplane ramp where we would fish at. One day a friend and I were fishing from his 14 foot aluminum boat just off the ramp. I was dozing in the front of the boat and my buddy was asleep at the back end of the boat. While laying there with my hat pulled down over my eyes I felt a slight movement of the boat, I raised my hat and turned my head to the side and there was a orca about 4 feet away with it's head sticking straight up out the water and eyeballing me. I could have reached out and touched it but I was too afraid to move and laid perfectly still as we stated at each other for about 20 to 30 seconds, and then it just slid straight back down into the water without leaving hardly a ripple in the water. All I could do was lay there and think "Please don't come back up right under the boat!" To this day I still remember being totally mesmerized staring into that black eyeball. One of the most incredible experiences of my life.
Back in 2008 we were taking a boat tour around the San Juans and a pod of orcas was close, the boat captain had to shut her down since there are strict rules on how close a tour boat can get to a pod. While we were bobbing around and everyone was looking starboard at the pod I turned around to look to the port and scared the shit out of myself. Right next to the boat was another pod within 20 yards. No one on board had seen them approach and I'll I could think of was, ''oh, shit we're chum''....Did get some really good photos though.
Wait and see
Their back.....
Pod of 20 Killer Whales Attacks Ship and Shakes It 'Like a Nutshell'