orca hunting yachts

Science | July 12, 2023

Five Astounding Orca Behaviors Explained, From Ramming Boats to Hunting Great White Sharks

The apex predators also surge onto shorelines to capture seals and engage in mysterious greeting ceremonies

Victoria Sayo Turner

Mass Media Fellow, AAAS

Few animals captivate the human imagination like orcas. Their recent attacks on sailing yachts have made news , but our encounters with the predators go way back.

Humans have long feared and revered the animals, also known as “killer whales,” which are not actually whales but instead the largest member of the family that includes dolphins. When Pliny the Elder recorded the orca in his first-century encyclopedia, he described it as “an enormous mass of flesh armed with teeth” that offered no mercy. But people have also worked alongside the powerful creatures: Australian whalers in the 1800s cooperated with orcas to capture and kill baleen whales, a tradition that may have originated thousands of years before with Indigenous Australian hunters.

In the 1960s and 1970s, aquariums and marine parks like SeaWorld collected wild-caught orcas, but public opinion took a turn when it was revealed that professional orca catchers like Ted Griffin used explosives to corral the creatures into nets, where they sometimes tangled and drowned. The last animals were taken for public display in U.S. waters in the mid-1970s, thanks to restrictions from the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Captive breeding programs began, but those came under fire, too, after activist efforts and the documentary Blackfish illustrated orcas’ poor health in captivity. In 2016, SeaWorld announced it would end its breeding program .

Captive orca tricks that involve swimming with humans, like an animal balancing a trainer on its nose, are now banned in the United States. But those acts never came close to the amazing feats of orcas in the wild. We called up four experts to learn about five of their most remarkable behaviors.

They get caught up in fads, including ramming boats

Orcas are intelligent and intensely social animals that pick up behaviors from fellow orcas. Take a trend described in Puget Sound in 1987, where one orca reportedly started carrying around a dead salmon on its head. This “salmon-hat” practice spread to two other pods before subsiding. Josh McInnes , a behavioral ecologist from University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Marine Mammal Research Unit, says that while he can’t explain that behavior, he’s witnessed orcas playing around in a similar way with jellyfish.

The latest fad among the marine mammals has been damaging sailing vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and further north off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Since 2020, reports have the animals charging at boats and tearing chunks off rudders. Orcas have anecdotally taken down ships in the past before —once in 1972 east of the Galapagos and another time in 1976 off the coast of Brazil. But the recent activity marks the first time the behavior appears to be spreading , perhaps as far as Scotland .

“Normally, it doesn’t catch on like this,” says Robert Pitman , a marine ecologist and affiliate at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, but in particular, “if [the matriarch] finds something that catches her interest, then it can easily pass along to other members of the group.”

Researchers haven’t been able to determine how this particular trend started or why more orcas seem to be joining in. Some scientists suggested in a 2022 study in Marine Mammal Science that the behavior might stem from the increased presence of ships among this endangered population, from the competition for food with fishing boats or from one orca’s response to being hit by a boat. Deborah Giles , science and research director of Wild Orca, a nonprofit conservation organization based in Washington, speculates that orcas could be playing by catching a ride on the ship like a skateboarder holding on to the back of a truck. “We’ve seen the young animals grab onto the trailing edge of an older, larger animal and be drug along for the ride,” she says.

They eat great white sharks

Some orcas specialize in prey like bluefin tuna, elephant seals or even blue whales—but others focus on hunting sharks . In 2011, researchers first documented the behavior in the Pacific Ocean. Later, aerial footage showed orcas in Monterey Bay snacking on a great white shark . In the video, a shark is passed from mouth to mouth among the pod members as they share the catch. Farther south, orcas of South Africa have been spotted descending on great whites and plucking out their extra-nutritious livers .

Killer whales are hunting great white sharks and eating their livers https://t.co/1kChF4xtS2 pic.twitter.com/0pPBGHtN0a — Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 12, 2017

How are orcas taking down such a fearsome creature? Hunting in a pack helps. Sharks are typically loners, while orcas will travel in a pod, making it easier to corner prey. Orcas sometimes “karate chop” the shark; they propel it to the water’s surface, then twist their tails sideways to strike the shark. Other times, the orcas force the sharks upside down, and a reflex triggers the fish into a paralysis-like state.

Orcas can clear an area of sharks just by showing up. In the Farallon Islands off the coast of California, where white sharks appear seasonally to eat young elephant seals, the sharks will abandon their territory and not return for the whole year if orcas show. For the black-and-white predators, sharks are “just another form of protein,” says McInnes. “And it’s unfortunate that the shark is not as high on the food chain as the killer whales.”

They surge onto the shore to hunt

Orcas develop specialized tactics for hunting their local prey. Some orcas eat fish and echolocate to find their targets, while others glide silently through the water to sneak up on elephant seal pups. “It’s like the entire neighborhood goes quiet,” says Salma Abdel-Raheem , an elephant seal researcher at University of California, Santa Cruz. “It’s spooky.”

In the Antarctic Ocean, orcas famously create waves to wash seals off ice floes. But one of the most spectacular ways orcas hunt straddles the land and the sea. Orcas in several places, including off the coasts of British Columbia and Patagonia, launch themselves up onto the beach to hunt. They approach seals or sea lions on the shore and swim straight up onto the sand or rocks, snatching their prey before wriggling back into the sea.

Juvenile orcas learn this method, called “intentional stranding,” from their mothers, says McInnes. A female will actively push a young orca up away from the water until it learns how to get up onto shore and back.

They have reunions

When they’re not hunting, orcas can engage in other behaviors that reflect their complex social structures. One of the most mysterious is the “greeting ceremony” seen in the salmon-eating population off the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada. Giles compares it to a reunion of a big extended family.

When two groups, or pods, come into contact after not seeing each other for some time, says Giles, the members of each pod line up to face the other group across a 300-foot stretch of water. They float in this formation “pec to pec, basically elbow to elbow” in two rows, she says. “And they just hover there at the surface with no vocalizations.”

After a few minutes, the ceremony then morphs from silence into a party atmosphere . Orcas break rank and rush together, swim around each other, vocalize, slap tails and jump out of the water. These gatherings can lead to larger groups with members from three pods that frequent the area. “It’s an amazing behavior,” says Giles. “It gives me chills just thinking about it.”

They speak with an “accent”

Humpback whales are known for their haunting song, but orcas are studied for their accents. Orcas do not actually possess vocal cords, but instead talk through their noses. Using fleshy structures mounted inside the nasal cavity, the creatures can produce an array of squeals, clicks and groans through their blowholes.

In the North Pacific, researchers have found that each pod is marked by a sonic signature or dialect in their calls, which will be similar but not identical to the accents of nearby pods. Giles describes the difference as “like a Valley Girl with the words a valley girl would use, versus an upstate New Yorker.”

The differences between calls become larger, akin to the gaps between human languages, when the pods are more distantly related to each other . Scientists studying orcas suspect that individuals acquire these sounds over the course of their lives from family members and, on occasion, unfamiliar orcas. The animals also show the ability to imitate sounds from other species—including humans . Such complex sounds may be key to how the animals enrich their social lives and coordinate their hunting.

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Victoria Sayo Turner | READ MORE

Victoria Sayo Turner is Smithsonian magazine's 2023 AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Killer Whales Are Not Our Friends

Stop rooting for the orcas ramming boats.

Photo of a group of orcas in the wild, just their dorsal fins are visible

In recent months, orcas in the waters off the Iberian Peninsula have taken to ramming boats. The animals have already sunk three this year and damaged several more. After one of the latest incidents , in which a catamaran lost both of its rudders, the boat’s captain suggested that the assailants have grown stealthier and more efficient : “Looks like they knew exactly what they are doing,” he said. Scientists have documented hundreds of orca-boat incidents off the Spanish-Portuguese coast since 2020, but news coverage of these attacks is blowing up right now, thanks in part to a creative new theory about why they’re happening: cetacean vengeance . Now that’s a story!

“The orcas are doing this on purpose,” Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, told LiveScience last month. “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, who co-authored a 2022 paper on human-orca interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar, speculates that a specific female, known to scientists as White Gladis, may have suffered a “critical moment of agony” at the hands of humans, attacked a boat in retaliation, and then taught other whales to do the same.

Whatever the truth of this assertion, White Gladis and her kin have quickly ascended to folk-heroic status on the internet. “What the marine biologists are framing as revenge based on one traumatic experience may be a piece of a larger mobilization towards balance,” the poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs tweeted before referring to the killer whales as “revolutionary mother teachers.” Media figures and academics are expressing solidarity with their “ orca comrades ” and support for “ orca saboteurs .” One widely circulating graphic shows a pod smashing a boat from below, above the words “JOIN THE ORCA UPRISING.” (You can even purchase it in sparkly sticker form.) Yet all of this fandom and projection tends to overlook important facts: First, these orcas are likely to be playing with the boats rather than attacking them, and second, if one insists on judging killer whales in human terms, it’s plain to see they aren’t heroes but sadistic jerks.

The recent incidents, none of which has resulted in any injuries to humans, are simply the result of curiosity, Monika Wieland Shields, the co-director of the Orca Behavior Institute in Washington, told me. A juvenile may have started interacting in this way with boats, she said, and then its habit spread through the local community of killer whales. Such cultural trends have been observed before: In the Pacific Northwest, orcas have been playing with buoys and crab pots for years; in the late 1980s, one group of orcas there famously took to wearing salmon hats . Is ramming boats the new donning fish ? Shields believes that theory makes more sense than López Fernandez’s appeal to orca trauma. White Gladis shows no physical evidence of injury or trauma, Shields told me, so any “critical moment of agony” is purely speculative. Also, humans have given orcas ample reason to retaliate for hundreds of years. We’ve invaded their waters, kidnapped their young, and murdered them in droves. And yet, there is not a single documented instance of orcas killing humans in the wild. Why would they react only now?

Read: 7 reasons killer whales are evil geniuses

And though recent events may fit the story of these orcas’ being anti-colonial warriors, you can’t just anthropomorphize animals selectively. What about all the other “evidence” we have of orcas’ cruelty, or even wickedness? Scientists say they hunt and slaughter sharks by the dozen, picking out the liver from each one and leaving the rest of the carcasses to rot uneaten. Orcas kill for sport . They push, drag, and spin around live prey, including sea turtles , seabirds, and sea lions. Some go so far as to risk beaching themselves in order to snag a baby seal—not to consume, but simply to torture it to death. Once you start applying human ethical standards to apex predators, things turn dark fast.

Perhaps #orcauprising was inevitable. Humanity does have, after all, a long history of freighting cetaceans with higher meaning. Moby Dick is, among other things, a symbol of the sublime . The biblical whale—or is it a large fish?—that swallows Jonah is an instrument of divine retribution, a means of punishing the wicked in much the same way some have framed the boat-wrecking orcas. The whale 52 Blue, known as the loneliest whale in the world because she speaks in a frequency inaudible, or at least incomprehensible, to her brethren, has become a canvas for all shades of human sorrow and angst.

Orcas in particular have long been objects of both fear and sympathy, in some cases with an explicitly anti-capitalist tint. The 1993 classic Free Willy centers on a conniving park owner’s scheme to profit off of the bond between a child and a young killer whale. And more recently, the 2013 documentary Blackfish chronicles SeaWorld’s real-life exploitation of captive orcas. The “orca uprising” narrative fits neatly into this lineage. In our present era of environmental catastrophe, Shields told me, it’s appealing to think that nature might fight back, that the villains get their just deserts.

But projection and anthropomorphization are only shortcuts to a shallow sympathy. Orcas really are capable of intense grief ; they are also capable of tormenting seal pups as a hobby. They are intelligent, emotionally complex creatures. But they are not us.

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Orcas Sink Another Boat Near Iberia, Worrying Sailors Before Summer

Two people were rescued on Sunday after orcas damaged their boat near the Strait of Gibraltar, where the animals have caused havoc in recent years.

Two orcas are visible just above the surface of a body of water, with a small boat in the background.

By Isabella Kwai

Summer is on the way, meaning that the orcas are out to play near the Strait of Gibraltar — which is bad news for sailors.

Two people were rescued on Sunday after an attack by a group of orcas caused enough damage to sink their boat, according to the Spanish maritime rescue service. It was the fifth such sinking in waters off the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in recent years.

The Alboran Cognac, a sailing yacht about 50 feet long, was approached by the animals on Sunday morning, some 14 miles off Cape Spartel in Morocco, the rescue service said. Crew members onboard reported that the animals had slammed the hull, damaged the rudder and caused a leak.

A nearby oil tanker quickly maneuvered toward the boat and evacuated the two sailors, who were taken to Gibraltar, the rescue service said. The boat was left adrift, and the Moroccan authorities reported that it eventually sank.

It’s the first boat to sink in those waters this year after an orca-related mishap. A group of orcas that traverse the Strait of Gibraltar and nearby waters has plagued sailors and intrigued marine biologists , who are studying the population. Since 2020, orcas have disrupted dozens of sailing journeys in these high-traffic waters, in some cases slamming vessels hard enough to cause critical damage.

Last November, orcas slammed a yacht’s rudder for 45 minutes, causing its crew to abandon the vessel, which sank near the Tanger Med port.

The group is more likely to appear in the busy lanes around the Gulf of Cadiz and the Strait of Gibraltar between April and August, the Spanish government said in a news release, and sailors have spotted some of the orcas there in recent weeks.

Researchers do not know why the pod is targeting boats, but they have theorized that the behavior is a form of play for the curious apex predators. The interactions have become so frequent that they are now a multinational issue, involving scientists and officials from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Online, anxious sailors have gathered to share advice on navigating “orca alley,” and biologists are tracking the orcas’ movements and testing methods that could deter them.

In the event of an orca encounter, the government advised in its release, boats should not stop but instead head toward shallower waters near the coast.

But the number of incidents may be declining: Researchers at the Atlantic Orca Working Group said on Monday that the number of orca interactions with boats between January and May had dropped some 40 percent, compared with that of similar periods in the past three years.

Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends. More about Isabella Kwai

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Orcas have attacked and sunk another boat in Europe — and experts warn there could be more attacks soon

A group of orcas known to attack boats in southwest Europe have sunk a 50-foot sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar after ripping open its hull. It is the fifth time these killer whales have sent a ship to the seafloor in the last three years.

An orca swimming next to a small orange boat

Orcas that have been terrorizing boats in southwest Europe have just sank their fifth yacht in three years. And experts have warned that more attacks are likely in the coming months after the orcas unexpectedly switched up their behavior earlier this year.

On Sunday (May 12), an unknown number of orcas ( Orcinus orca ) attacked the 49-foot-long (15 meters) sailing yacht named the Alboran Cognac in the Strait of Gibraltar — a narrow body of water between southern Spain and North Africa that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. During the attack, which began at around 9 a.m. local time, the killer whales repeatedly rammed the boat's hull and rudder, Reuters reported .

The yacht's two-person crew radioed for help and was rescued by a passing oil tanker. But the vessel's hull sustained serious damage during the attack and the yacht began to take on water, which eventually caused it to sink, Reuters reported.

The attack was likely carried out by a growing number of individuals from the Iberian subpopulation of orcas — a group of around 40 killer whales that live off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Gibraltar — that have been attacking boats across their range since 2020.

Most of the attacks occur between May and August each year in and around the Strait of Gibraltar. However, earlier this year, some of the highly social apex predators were spotted circling a boat in northern Spain , suggesting they have spread out much further and earlier than normal.

As a result, the Spanish authorities have warned recreational boaters to avoid sailing too far from the coast and to not stop their vessels if they are approached by orcas, according to a translated statement from Spain's Maritime Safety and Rescue Society.

Related: Orcas are learning terrifying new behaviors. Are they getting smarter?

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A group of orcas swinmming near a sailing yacht

Since the attacks started in 2020, sailors have reported around 700 interactions with orcas in the area, ranging from circling and nudging vessels to ramming, ripping apart and sinking boats, Reuters reported.

The most recent sinking event prior to this one occurred on Halloween last year when a pod of orcas sank a sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar after a near hour-long attack . Before then, at least three other boats were sunk in the region between 2022 and early 2023. However, no humans have been injured or killed.

During attacks, the orcas' most common tactic is to damage or rip off the vessel's rudder , which makes it impossible to steer the vehicles. Researchers believe this is a learned behavior, and eye-witnesses have previously reported seeing individuals seemingly teach other orcas how to do this . As a result, the number of attacks has increased over the last few years.

A juvenile orca swims away from the yacht with a large piece of fiberglass from the rudder in its mouth.

— 11 ways orcas show their terrifying intelligence

— How often do orcas attack humans?

— How orcas gained their 'killer' reputation

So far, at least 15 individuals have been linked to at least one attack in the region. But researchers believe the attacks can be traced back to a single female, named White Gladis, who may have been pregnant when she started harassing the boats. However, it is unclear exactly what sparked the attacks.

There has even been a suggestion that the behavior has spread beyond the Iberian population after an orca similarly attacked a boat in Scotland in 2023. However, this was an isolated incident, which makes it hard to link it to the Iberian attacks.

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology. His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023.

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Why Are Orcas Attacking Boats? Experts Weigh In

F or the past few years, orcas attacking boats have been making headlines, most recently off the coasts of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean. These incidents, involving a group of orcas known as the Iberian orcas, have been occurring since 2020.

Once seen as gentle giants — partly because of "Free Willy" and SeaWorld — these striking black-and-white mammals are now the center of a curious debate.

Is this a maliciously motivated attack on humans, or are they simply playing around with us?Let's explore this strange behavior and find out whether experts think it's an anomaly or the new standard for orca interactions.

The Lowdown on Killer Whales

An orca, also known as a killer whale ( Orcinus orca ), is a large marine mammal from the dolphin family recognizable by its black-and-white coloring. Orcas can grow up to 32 feet (9.8 meters) in length and weigh up to 11 tons (10 metric tonnes).

These highly social apex predators are known for their complex social structures and sophisticated behaviors. Orcas live in family groups called pods , usually led by the oldest female, with multiple generations included. These pods can consist of a few individuals to several dozen; multiple pods form clans, which in turn make up a community.

Orcas use echolocation and unique vocalizations for navigation, hunting and communication. Each pod has distinct calls that help maintain group cohesion and coordinate activities. They engage in cooperative hunting, herding fish or hunting seals together, with their diet varying based on region and pod specialization.

Playful behavior, such as breaching and tail-slapping, helps strengthen social bonds among orcas, while social grooming reinforces these connections.

Could this inherent playfulness be the reason for the recent string of boat attacks? More on that in a bit.

Recent Attacks on Boats

In May 2024, an unknown number of orcas attacked a 49-foot-long (15-meter-long) sailing yacht named Alboran Cognac in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow waterway between southern Spain and North Africa that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

Reuters reported that the incident occurred around 9 a.m. local time when the orcas repeatedly rammed the boat's hull and rudder, causing significant damage. The yacht's crew (just two people) radioed for aid and managed to be rescued by a passing oil tanker, but the yacht ultimately sank due to the damage it sustained.

These attacks are part of a series of interactions reported since 2020 , primarily involving a subpopulation of Iberian orcas — around 40 killer whales living off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Gibraltar.

Most attacks occur between May and August each year in and around the Strait of Gibraltar . However, earlier this year, some of these highly social apex predators were spotted circling a boat in northern Spain, suggesting they have spread out much further and are engaging in this behavior earlier than usual.

As a result, Spanish authorities have warned recreational boaters to avoid sailing too far from the coast and to not stop their vessels if approached by orcas, according to a statement from Spain's maritime rescue service.

Sailors are now considering adding extra armor to their vessels — or at least investing in some orca deterrents — if only such a thing existed.

So, if you're planning a trip through these waters, watch for these mischievous marine mammals. And maybe, just maybe, consider bringing along a decoy yacht to distract them.

Experts Debate: Playful Curiosity or Trauma Response?

The behavior driving these so-called attacks is still being studied, and many theories have emerged. As we hinted earlier, some researchers suggest that the orcas might engage in these interactions out of curiosity or playfulness.

These creatures are known for their intelligence and complex social behaviors, and these attacks may be a form of play or social learning. Similar to how other animals engage in play to develop skills or for entertainment, orcas might be doing the same with boats.

Another theory is that these behaviors are part of a learned fad within the orca population. This idea is supported by observations of other cultural phenomena among orcas, such as carrying dead salmon on their heads, which were short-lived trends.

Essentially, the attacks might have started as an isolated incident and then spread through social learning within the pod.

Some experts believe that the attacks could be a response to a traumatic event experienced by one or more orcas. For example, a collision with a vessel could have caused injuries or distress, leading the orcas to associate boats with danger and respond aggressively.

An orca named White Gladis is often mentioned in this context, as she may have had a negative encounter with a boat. Her apparent distress and subsequent aggressive behavior toward ships might have been observed and adopted by other orcas in her pod. This learned behavior could then spread through social learning, leading to the increased frequency of these attacks seen since 2020.

Conservation Concerns and Public Opinion

Conservationists are worried that these attacks might lead to negative perceptions of orcas and potentially harmful responses from the public.

“I hope that they stop doing it as quickly as they started because it’s actually imposing a risk on themselves,” Hanne Strager, a marine biologist and author of “The Killer Whale Journals,” told the New York Times . She noted that this behavior adds strain to an endangered species, as the negative publicity might result in detrimental actions against the orcas.

Another perspective is that these attacks are a response to environmental pressures such as a decrease in prey availability, increased boat traffic or interactions with fisheries. These stressors could be causing the orcas to exhibit unusual behaviors as they adapt to changing conditions in their habitat.

Social Media and Public Opinion

Social media has played a significant role in shaping public opinion about these incidents. Many users have joked about "orca rebellions" and formed "Team Orca," sympathizing with the killer whales and viewing the attacks as a form of playful resistance.

However, there are also concerns that these humorous takes could minimize the serious implications of the behavior and the potential risks to both humans and orcas.

Monika Wieland Shields, cofounder and director of the Orca Behavior Institute, wrote an op-ed in response to the outpouring of love for the orca uprising. "We recognize that we have done enough to the world to deserve orcas attacking us in response. Laughing at the memes is fine, but my hope is that people will also reflect on this one a bit further."

We created this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor.

Original article: Why Are Orcas Attacking Boats? Experts Weigh In

Orcas have sunk another vessel off the European coast. Why won't they stop ramming boats?

By Audrey Courty

Topic: Whales

A group of three orcas repeatedly hit the rudder of a race boat in June 2023. ( Supplied: The Ocean Race )

The orcas are at it again: for the seventh time in four years, a pod of whales has sunk a boat after ramming it in Moroccan waters off the Strait of Gibraltar.

The 15 metre-long yacht Alborán Cognac, which carried two people, encountered the highly social apex predators at 9am local time on Sunday, Spain's maritime rescue service said.

The passengers reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder before water started to seep into the sailboat. It is not known how many orcas were involved.

After alerting rescue services, a nearby oil tanker took them onboard and carried them to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on Spain's southern coast.

Nothing could be done to save the sailboat, which drifted and eventually sank.

It's the latest incident in what has become a trend of hundreds of interactions between orcas and boats since the "disruptive behaviour" was first reported in the region in May 2020.

The origin of this new behaviour has baffled scientists, though the leading theory suggests this "social fad" began as a playful manifestation of the whales' curiosity.

Where have orcas interacted with boats?

The latest data from the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), an organisation that contributes to the animals' conservation and management, shows that there have been at least 673 interactions since 2020.

GTOA defines interactions as instances when orcas react to the presence of approaching boats with or without physical contact.

The map below shows the highest numbers of encounters from April to May 2024 took place off Spain's southern coast in the Strait of Gibraltar (red zones), with some lesser activity in surrounding areas (yellow zones).

The majority of reported encounters with orcas in April and May 2024 took place around the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco. ( Supplied: GTOA )

A 2022 peer-reviewed study published in the Marine Mammal Science journal found the orcas in these areas preferred interacting with sailboats — both monohulls (72 per cent) and catamarans (14 per cent) — with an average length of 12 metres.

A clear pattern emerged of orcas striking their rudders, while sometimes also scraping the hulls with their teeth. Such attacks often snapped the rudder, leaving the boat unable to navigate.

"The animals bumped, pushed and turned the boats," the authors of the report said.

Adding this week's encounter, there have been seven reported cases of orcas damaging a boat so badly that it has sunk, though the people onboard were rescued safely each time.

In June 2023, a run-in with the giant mammals in the Strait of Gibraltar forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off.

No-one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said that it had been a "scary moment".

"Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders," he said.

"Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team ... Luckily, after a few attacks, they went away."

After analysing 179 videos and photos of these types of interactions, which lasted on average 40 minutes, researchers concluded there was no reason to classify the events as intentionally hostile behaviour.

"The behaviour of orcas when interacting with boats is not identified as aggressive," they said.

"One of their main motivations has been identified as competition with boats for speed."

Still, the researchers of the study admitted they were not sure what triggered the novel behaviour in 2020.

"We are not yet certain what the origin of these interactions is, but it is still suspected that it could be a curious and playful behaviour," they wrote.

"[The behaviour] could be self-induced, or on the other hand it could be a behaviour induced by an aversive incident and therefore a precautionary behaviour."

Are the same orcas responsible for these incidents?

Out of around 49 orcas living in the Strait of Gibraltar, GTOA researchers found a total of 15 whales from at least three different communities participated in the unusual interactions with boats between 2020 and 2022.

Most of those that engaged with greater intensity were juveniles, though it's unclear if others have since joined the group.

These giant mammals, which belong to the dolphin family, can measure up to eight metres and weigh up to six tonnes as adults.

The director of the Orca Behaviour Institute, Monika Wieland Shields, has said there is no evidence to prove the theory these whales were seeking vengeance against humans for a past trauma.

"While I'm sure it feels like an attack for the people on board, for the whales themselves, it really looks more like play behaviour," she said.

"There's something intriguing or entertaining to them about this [boat rudder] mechanism and they're just showing a lot of curiosity about it."

Ms Wieland said it's likely this new behaviour spread through the population as a kind of "social fad".

"Orcas are highly intelligent, very social animals, and with that comes a tendency to be curious about and explore your environment," she said.

"One thing that we see are these kind of fad behaviours that will appear in a certain population.

"One whale discovers something, they find it entertaining or interesting, or fun — it's some type of game. And then they will teach that to other members of their family group."

Are orcas dangerous to humans?

While orcas have earned their fearsome reputation for preying on other marine animals, there is no record of them killing humans in the wild.

In captivity, orcas have killed four people since the 1990s, though it's unclear whether the deaths were accidental or deliberate attempts to cause harm.

Ms Shields said she was worried the recent interactions between orcas and boats would skew people's perceptions of these mammals.

"I am concerned that people are going to react with fear, potentially injure or shoot at some of these whales," Ms Shields said.

"We really need to educate boaters about the best things that they can do to make themselves less attractive to the whales and the best case scenario would be the whales lose interest in this and move onto something less destructive."

Spain's Transport Ministry advises that whenever boats observe any changes in the behaviour of orcas — such as in their direction or speed — they should leave the area as soon as possible and avoid further disturbance to the animals.

The ministry also states every interaction between a ship and an orca must be reported to authorities.

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A pod of orcas has sunk a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar

Ayana Archie

A pair of orcas swim off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 2018. Brian Gisborne/AP hide caption

A pair of orcas swim off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 2018.

For 45 minutes, the crew of the Grazie Mamma felt like they were under attack from below. A pod of orcas had zeroed in on the yacht's rudder as it made its way through the Strait of Gibraltar last week, and rammed it repeatedly, "causing major damage and leakage," according to the company that operated the boat.

Rescuers were able to save the crew and return them safely to port in Tanger-Med on the coast of Morocco. Their vessel, though, sank into the sea.

"This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us," read a statement posted to Facebook by Morskie Mile , the Warsaw-based touring company that operated the boat. "Very good memories will be transferred to Grazie Mamma II. Love of the sea always wins and friendships remain with us."

The company said it is working to ensure its upcoming trips to the Canary Islands go on without a hitch.

Last week's incident was the latest in a string of recent "attacks" by orcas in the waters separating southern Europe and northern Africa — encounters that have left researchers scratching their heads.

Killer whales are 'attacking' sailboats near Europe's coast. Scientists don't know why

Since 2020, there have been about 500 encounters between orcas and boats, Alfredo López Fernandez, a coauthor of a 2022 study in the journal Marine Mammal Science, told NPR earlier this year. At least three boats have sunk, though there is no record of an orca killing a human in the wild.

Scientists have been trying to pinpoint the cause of the behavior.

One theory among researchers is they're just playing around. Other researchers say it may be that the whales like the feel of the rudder.

"What we think is that they're asking to have the propeller in the face," said Renaud de Stephanis, president and coordinator at CIRCE Conservación Information and Research in Spain, in an interview with NPR last year. When they encounter a sailboat without its engine on, "they get kind of frustrated and that's why they break the rudder," de Stephanis said.

Another theory is that the behavior may be some sort of act of revenge due to possibly traumatic , previous encounters with fishing boats.

Orcas sank a yacht off Spain — the latest in a slew of such 'attacks' in recent years

Revenge of the killer whales? Recent boat attacks might be driven by trauma

"I definitely think orcas are capable of complex emotions like revenge," Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute previously told NPR. Shields said she does not think "we can completely rule it out," even if she was not entirely convinced herself.

Deborah Giles, the science and research director at conservation group Wild Orca, says pods in other areas, such as near Washington state, have been targeted by humans, but haven't shown a pattern of ramming boats.

How wildlife officials saved a humpback whale found 'hogtied' to a 300-pound crab pot

Which underscores why researchers say it's difficult to draw any conclusions from the interactions documented to date. In an open letter published this summer, 30 scientists cautioned against "projecting narratives onto these animals," writing that "In the absence of further evidence, people should not assume they understand the animals' motivations."

Correction Nov. 7, 2023

An earlier version of this story misstated the yacht's name, Grazie Mamma, as Grazie Mamma II.

Rash of killer whale rammings on boats has some wondering: How do you stop an orca?

Not attacks, just playful teenagers: a multinational group of orca experts provides tips and ideas to prevent curious orcas from ramming vessels.

Since 2020, more than 673, boats, expensive yachts, fishing boats and motorboats have been victims of a group of playful orcas ramming – and in some cases sinking vessels in the crystalline waters off the coast of Spain, Portugal, France and Morocco.

What originally appeared to be attacks , now seem more likely to be a bunch of bored teenage orcas looking for something to do, said cetacean expert Alexandre Zerbini.

A multinational group of orca experts, sponsored by the governments of Spain and Portugal, met in February and released a report outlining the behaviors and what might be done to stop it.

What should be done to avoid orca interactions?

The workshop participants suggest mariners avoid areas where the Iberian killer whales are likely to be hunting their preferred prey – bluefin tuna – from May through August. They should also keep their boats closer to shore in shallow areas and move at least a mile away from any orcas who begin to interact with their boats. If possible, they should head toward shore to make rescue faster, should it be necessary.

Boaters are already following the experts' suggestions in areas where the killer whales are interacting with their vessels and the results are encouraging.

Now that vessels are fleeing immediately, rescues are down 80%, from May 2023 through May 2024, said Renaud de Stephanis. De Stephanis has been studying orca behavior for more than 25 years and is president of CIRCE (Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre Cetáceos), an organization dedicated to preserving marine life.

During that same period, interactions (when an orca touches a vessel) have declined by 70%, he said.

Experts caution that more time will be needed to see if the incidents are indeed declining but are hopeful.

Devices suggested to deter the orcas from interacting with the boats

During the session in February, the group of experts also discussed devices or boat modifications to deter the orcas from interacting with the rudders.

De Stephanis says he's testing a rudder with an altered surface and appearance. The experimental device appears promising, particularly in limiting the number of rudders orcas target.

"The device features .5 inch conical protrusions on the hull and keel of sailboats," de Stephanis said. "The theory is that these protrusions alter the orcas' perception of the rudder, deterring them from attacking it."

The flowing pieces behind the rudder create the appearance of a jellyfish, which orcas detest and they avoid it, de Stephanis added.

While results were promising, testing halted in 2023 because Portuguese officials said they were concerned about potentially harming the orcas.

"This concern is unfounded," said de Stephanis. "Orcas have excellent underwater vision, but to avoid problems, we stopped temporarily." De Stephanis began retesting the device in June in collaboration with the National Fisheries Research Institute in Morocco. "We are now testing the device with two rudders one with the device and one without. We have 15 cameras underwater and what we find is that they approach the boat but that don't approach the rudder with the device," he said.

De Stephanis says he is seeking a patent on the device to keep it free for others to use. "I have a plan to patent it so no one can sell it and anyone can use it for free," he said.

Another possible deterrent called a hukilau, looks like a hanging torpedo-shaped weight in the water. The device has been effective in deterring whales from coming near fishing boats in Polynesia, but the group of orca experts agreed more tests are needed before it could be tried in the areas near the Strait of Gibraltar where many of the incidents have occurred.

Pingers, also known as Acoustic Deterrent Devices, are another potential deterrent for cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), but they don't appear to have a long-lasting impact on orcas.

When scientists tested pingers on orcas, the whales became familiar with the devices in less than five days, rendering them ineffective as deterrents, said de Stephanis.

"The same occurs with dolphins," de Stephanis said. "In our observations, it's evident that when we activate pingers in the water, dolphins still approach the boats. We can clearly see that they continue to come closer in all instances."

While de Stephanis believes rudder modification is the best deterrent, the group's only official recommendation has been to avoid areas where the Iberian killer whales might be and stay in shallow waters.

Orca in water with rainbow and water dispersed.

Why are orcas ramming boats? They might just be bored teenagers

Just call them young and restless: The orcas sinking boats off the Iberian Peninsula mean no harm—and media coverage that they’re taking revenge could hurt the rare population.

Off the Iberian Peninsula, a group of orcas have become famous for sinking several vessels—the latest just weeks ago. The predators’ motivations for this odd behavior, which began in 2020, has sparked wild speculation : Are they having fun, avenging humans, or doing something else entirely? Now, experts say they finally know what’s going on.

In a newly released report , scientists with the International Whaling Commission believe this pod of around 15 animals are most likely mischievous “teenagers."

To come to this conclusion, the researchers analyzed online footage of orcas engaging in aggressive behaviors, such as hunting. They also studied videos of the animals playing with things like their food, jellyfish, and kelp, and saw no sign of hostility. (Learn five ways orcas are surprising scientists.)

“They approach [a boat] calmly and gently, and it looks like they're playing. They push the rudder gently with the tip of the nose,” says Alex Zerbini , the commission’s scientific committee chair and a senior scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “The behavior is very, very different from being aggressive.”

“They don't really know that their playfulness is causing harm… it’s not intentional,” Zerbini says. “When we are teenagers, we do things that maybe we wouldn't do as an adult. We’re more courageous,” he says.

Rob Lott , campaign coordinator at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a U.K.-based nonprofit, agrees with this theory.

“This is a solid conclusion that what we’ve witnessed is just a form of play behavior, as alarming it is for the mariners on board,” says Lott, who wasn’t involved in the report.

The young and the restless

Found worldwide, orcas are incredibly intelligent hunters, and, depending on their habitats, populations specialize in different kinds of prey.

For instance, Australian animals work as a team to kill blue whales, the largest animals on Earth ; Antarctic orcas use waves as a tool to flush seals into the water; and notorious pair in South Africa dine on great white shark livers.

The Iberian Peninsula population, which has a specialized diet and feeds mostly on bluefin tuna, is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered , with fewer than 40 individuals left. (See 13 of Nat Geo’s favorite photos of orcas.)

One explanation for why the orcas began sinking boats could be an abundance of their primary food staple. Once endangered because of overfishing, Atlantic bluefin tuna has recently bounced back thanks to the enforcement of sustainable fishing quotas.

“Now that the bluefin tuna has recovered, it makes sense that not only the whales are well nourished, but they have more time on their hands and that's why they are engaging in these more social activities,” Zerbini says.

Seeking play, not vengeance

The report also stresses that describing these encounters as attacks—or pushing the idea that orcas are taking revenge against people—is not only inaccurate but could be harmful to the rare animals. In August 2023, a vessel crew crossing the Strait of Gibraltar fired projectiles at the orcas, which conservationists reported as a crime against the protected species .

“Revenge is clearly not their motivation here,” Lott says, adding that there are no recorded instances of wild orcas killing a person, despite “humans, over the decades, giving them ample opportunities for revenge,” such as hunting them.

That said, being rammed by an orca—even playfully—can be frightening, which is why experts recommend boats navigate around known orca hot spots in the Strait of Gibraltar, or move away immediately if an animal approaches and let other boats in the area know of their location.

Scientists also plan to experiment with non-harmful measures to prevent the cetaceans from damaging rudders, such as towing dinghies as a decoy or modifying the rudder.

They will also test using a sudden, unexpected noise to deter them. “We've seen that, if you trigger this startle reflex, the animal will move away,” says Thomas Goetz , an animal bioacoustics researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Lott is also confident this teenage trend will fizzle out—and may have already started to, with fewer incidents in 2024. In the 1980s, orcas in Puget Sound, Washington, started carrying dead salmon on their heads like a hat . “That fad disappeared as quickly as it appeared,” he says.

In the meantime, Lott recommends that people “keep a cool head and take the appropriate advice—and hopefully all will be well for both sailors and orcas.”

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Why orcas keep sinking boats

Scientists have some theories why killer whales have seriously damaged boats about a dozen times this year off the coast of Spain and Portugal

In the early morning Thursday, killer whales smashed into a sailboat off the southern coast of Spain, puncturing its hull and damaging its rudder. Spanish authorities raced to save the sinking vessel, according to Reuters , but it was in such disrepair it had to be towed ashore.

It wasn’t the first attack by an orca, or killer whale, off the coast of Spain and Portugal this year. And it may not be the last time one chews a rudder or crashes into a hull. Normally, killer whales aren’t considered dangerous to humans. But pods of killer whales have done serious damage to boats in the region about a dozen times already this year, according to the Grupo de Trabajo Orca Atlántica, or GTOA, a research group studying the region’s killer whales, part of a rise in attacks first observed in 2020.

Stories and videos of the attacks widely shared on social media have turned the orca into a meme. After the marine mammals struck some fancy yachts, some observers are calling the strikes concentrated around the Strait of Gibraltar, where the whales congregate in the spring and summer, an act of anti-capitalist solidarity from “orca comrades” and “orca saboteurs.” For others, the series of strikes is eerily similar to a scene in James Cameron’s latest “Avatar” movie , “The Way of the Water.”

So what is happening? The scientists studying the whales themselves aren’t entirely sure, either. But they have two leading ideas:

Theory No. 1: The orcas are playing around

Closely related to bottlenose dolphins, orcas are highly intelligent and curious marine mammals. Using a series of underwater pulses and whistles, the whales communicate with such sophistication that pods form their own dialects and parents teach their young hunting methods that are passed along for generations.

After learning a new behavior, juvenile orcas often keep repeating it ad nauseam. (In that way, they are a lot like human youngsters.) Playing around is just a part of learning how to be an apex predator.

That matches the pattern of attacks whale scientists have witnessed this year, according to Alfredo López Fernandez, a researcher at the University of Aveiro in Portugal working with GTOA.

In this case, the behavior is “self-induced,” López Fernandez said, and not caused directly by some outside (i.e., human) provocation. “Which means that they invent something new and repeat it,” he added.

But there’s another potential motivation that sounds straight out of “Moby Dick.”

Theory No. 2: The orcas want vengeance

Orcas off the Iberian Coast like to follow fishing vessels to snag bluefin tuna before fishermen can reel them in, putting the aquatic mammals at risk of being struck or entangled. Scientists have seen killer whales in those waters with fishing lines hanging from their bodies.

So it is possible, López Fernandez said, an orca had a bad run-in with a boat in the past, and is now teaching other killer whales how to attack vessels as well. The team suspects a female adult named White Gladis may be the one doing so.

López Fernandez emphasized we don’t have enough information to know the real reason behind the attacks yet. Even assuming the second theory is true, “we don’t know what that triggering stimulus could have been,” he said.

With only 39 orcas counted in 2011, the Iberian orca subpopulation is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The impact that entanglements and boat strikes are having on all sorts of whales and dolphins around the world underscores that humans are a bigger threat to them than they are to us.

“All this has to make us reflect on the fact that human activities, even in an indirect way, are at the origin of this behavior,” López Fernandez said.

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Tragic new vid shows ‘world’s loneliest orca’ lying near-motionless in aquarium pool ‘where he’s lived alone for 24yrs’

Vera Demertzis
Published : 9:20 ET, Aug 22 2024
Updated : 9:26 ET, Aug 22 2024
Published : Invalid Date,

THIS is the tragic moment a lonely orca was filmed lying motionless for 24 hours in a concrete aquarium.

The heartbreaking footage shows the isolated killer whale trapped in a tiny pool at the Mundo Marino, Argentina 's largest aquarium.

Kshamenk, a captive killer whale, has been dubbed the world's loneliest orca

A 24-hour time-lapse video filmed by non-profit organisation UrgentSeas on August 12 shows Kshamenk languishing motionless with his face pointed directly towards the enclosure's gate.

The non-profit organisation is now advocating to free the lonely Kshamenk, who has been on his own for 24 years.

The organisation wants to take him to an open sanctuary with other orcas to socialise with.

A spokesperson from the organisation said: "We continue to work with Argentinian activists and members of Congress to try to highlight and address his cruel world.

My yacht was SUNK by 5 orcas who circled boat 'like wolves' before ramming it

Task force hunt killer whale White Gladis after yachts smashed in Gibraltar

"He needs to be removed from his tiny concrete tank and join other members of his species before it's too late."

Kshamenk, 35, was first brought to Mundo Marino in 1992 after being captured off the Samborombón Bay.

According to Mundo Marino, the then three-year-old orca was found beached by three fishermen along with three other killer whales.

He was taken to a concrete tank at the aquarium.

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Initially, the killer whale had a companion when he was placed in a tank with another killer whale called Belen.

The pair hit it off until Belen died in 2000 after issues while giving birth.

He has since spent the last 24 years in total isolation in a cramped, shallow pool with significantly restricted movement.

Kshamenk is the last remaining captive killer whale in Argentina .

Last year, Kshamenk went viral after UrgentSeas co-founder Phil Demers posted a video of the depressed orca on social media.

Demers visited the attraction to bring awareness to the "world's loneliest orca".

The upsetting clip shows Kshamenk in a small, round pool, barely big enough to fit him in.

He floats in the middle of the water, almost lifeless as a dolphin swims around him.

Another dolphin can also be seen in a murky, green pool next door.

According to reports, his sperm has been sold several times to SeaWorld to impregnate other orcas.

The Instagram post has over 13,135 likes and 1,300 comments from shocked and appalled people.

One said: “This is horrifying. No animal should live like this.”

As another commented: “Imagine being locked in a white padded room for 50 years since you were a baby.

“No education. This is a jail. Solitary confinement.”

Other posts called the treatment “so awful”, as he can’t even move around while some called it “so sad and heartbreaking”.

According to the Mundo Marino website , Kshamenk is in excellent health.

A statement dated June 27, 2024 said: "A team of three veterinarians and eight keepers, supported by seven external specialists, conduct monthly checks as part of a rigorous preventive medicine plan.

"These include blood tests assessing more than 32 parameters, as well as gastric content and respiratory flow samples monitoring 40 different parameters.

"All show normal ranges for his age. In addition, Kshamenk's studies and general condition are constantly monitored, controlled and approved by the responsible provincial and national state bodies."

They further added that it would be impossible to release Kshamenk into the sea or into a sancturary.

They said: "That would be impossible without putting his life at serious risk.

"Orcas are highly social animals that live in complex groups and rely on their pod for hunting, food, and protection.

"Adapting Kshamenk (a geriatric animal who has already exceeded his life expectancy) to this dynamic would be impossible, as his survival would depend on both his acceptance by a new group of orcas and his ability to hunt independently, both highly unlikely.

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"There are no sanctuaries, reserves or facilities in semi-natural environments equipped with the necessary capacity to care for an orca like Kshamenk."

The Sun has contacted Mundo Marino for comment.

The killer whale has gone 24 years without seeing another orca species

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