Orcas strike back (again), sinking another yacht in Europe after 45-minute attack

Camille Fine, USA TODAY
Updated Wed, November 8, 2023 

Sailors’ newest nightmare has struck again, and on Halloween of all days.

A pod of orcas in southwestern Europe sank a sailing boat on Oct. 31 after a non-stop, 45-minute attack, Live Science reported. The incident is the fourth occurrence in two years where orcas, also known as killer whales, are blamed for sinking ships in southwestern Europe.

Orca pods from the Strait of Gibraltar region have been harassing boats and their passengers for more than three years.

According to a translated Facebook post made by Polish cruise company Morskie Mile, owner of the sunken boat, a mid-size sailing yacht named the Grazie Mamma was attacked by a pod of orcas off the coast of Morocco in the Strait of Gibraltar. Major damage caused by an unknown number of orcas who repeatedly hit the yacht's rudder caused water to enter the vessel's hull. All passengers were safely evacuated before the boat sank as it entered the port of Tanger-Med in Morocco while in tow with the Moroccan Navy.

Orca attacks: Why are orcas attacking boats and sometimes sinking them?

Why are orcas attacking boats?

Tales of orca ambushes have started gaining more traction online as reported incidents off the Iberian coast jumped from 52 in 2020 to more than 200 last year, though no human injuries or deaths have been reported, Orca research group GTOA revealed earlier this year.

Experts first documented juvenile Iberian killer whales — a "unique subpopulation of killer whales that lives in the northeast Atlantic," — touching, pushing, and even turning vessels, including some fishing and inflatable boats, in 2020, GTOA said. Experts think the rest of the population could be mimicking the behavior.

Killer whales: In a first, detailed video captures orcas hunting great white sharks in South Africa

An orca pod was captured attacking a boat off the coast of Morocco.

Experts gathered earlier this year to try and address "urgent need for specific actions based on international coordination between administrations, mariners and scientists to prevent future damage to people, orcas and vessels," GTOA said.

Andrew Trites, professor and director of Marine Mammal Research at the University of British Columbia, told CBS News that there are two main theories about why this is happening, but for now it remains to be an “unprecedented” mystery. Trites said something is positively reinforcing the behavior among the highly intelligent species.

Iberian orcas are the only species of whale that have been known to attack boats in this region, Trites added.

The first main theory is that orcas are engaging in a type of whale "play" or "sport,” Trites said. The second theory is that orcas’ years of dealing with traumatic boating injuries have resulted in a "negative experience.”

Whale expert Anne Gordon told USA Today that these are isolated incidents.

"Yes, their job is to be predators in the ocean, but in normal circumstances there is absolutely zero threat to humans in a boat," Gordon said.

“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,” Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Washington based nonprofit research organization Orca Behavior Institute, told NBC News late last month.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Orcas, or killer whales, blamed for attack sinking sailboat in Europe

Orcas’ latest boat attack claims yacht sailing in Strait of Gibraltar

Patrick Smith
Thu, November 9, 2023

Morskie Mile via Facebook

A yacht sank after it was attacked by a pod of orcas for 45 minutes, a sailing company has said, marking the latest assault on a boat by the sea mammals this year.

Polish tour operator Morskie Mile — which means "sea miles" — said in a Facebook post that its yacht Grazie Mamma II was attacked while sailing the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco on Oct. 31.

The whales attacked the boat's rudder, the company said, causing major damage and a leak. Despite an attempt by the captain to take the boat to the nearest port, and a rescue attempt that involved the Moroccan Navy, the yacht sank near the entrance to the port of Tanger Med, about an hour's drive east of the city of Tangiers.

The boat's crew were unharmed, the company said in a statement that NBC News translated from Polish. The same statement was posted to the company's website by company owner Lech Lewandowski.

"For us, this yacht was everything that was great about sea sailing," he said.

"Long-term friendships were formed onboard. We sailed this yacht through the most beautiful places in Europe and the Atlantic archipelagos, trained numerous yacht helmsmen, discovered the beautiful and unknown, tasted Mediterranean specialties and sailed, sailed, sailed," Lewandowski continued.

The company said it was planning to honor forthcoming cruise bookings by using "friends' yachts." Future trips will take in the Baltic Sea, Norway, Italy and the Canary Islands, according to the company's website. A single leg of a voyage can cost 1,800 Polish zloty ($432).

In May, it emerged that orcas were responsible for attacking and sinking three boats in southern Europe. Encounters between orcas and humans have been increasing since 2020, researchers say, but no human deaths have been reported.

The increased orca-boat activity has led to a slew of internet memes this year, with some claiming they were joining the "orca wars" on the side of the orcas.

In September, a Russian boat on a round-the-world trip was sunk after a prolonged attack by tiny cookiecutter sharks.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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