killer whales sink sailboat

Friends' sailing adventure ends in a dramatic rescue after a whale sinks their boat in the Pacific

What started as a sailing adventure for one man and three of his friends ended in a dramatic rescue after a giant whale sank his boat, leaving the group stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for hours and with a tale that might just be stranger than fiction.

Rick Rodriguez and his friends had been on what was meant to be a weekslong crossing to French Polynesia on his sailboat, Raindancer, when the crisis unfolded just over a week ago.

They had been enjoying some pizza for lunch when they heard a loud bang.

"It just happened in an instant. It was just a very violent impact with some crazy-sounding noises and the whole boat shook," Rodriguez told NBC's "TODAY" show in an interview that aired Wednesday.

"It sounded like something broke and we immediately looked to the side and we saw a really big whale bleeding,” he said.

The impact was so severe that the boat's propeller was ruptured and the fiberglass around it shattered, sending the vessel into the ocean.

As water began to rush into the boat, the group snapped into survival mode.

"There was just an incredible amount of water coming in, very fast," Rodriguez said.

Alana Litz, a member of the crew, described the ordeal as "surreal."

"Even when the boat was going down, I felt like it was just a scene out of a movie. Like everything was floating," she said.

Rodriguez and his friends acted fast, firing off mayday calls and text messages as they activated a life raft and dinghy.

He said he sent a text message to his brother Roger in Miami and to a friend, Tommy Joyce, who was sailing a "buddy boat" in the area as a safety measure.

“Tommy this is no joke," Rodriguez wrote in a text message. "We hit a whale and the ship went down."

"We are in the life raft," he texted his friend. "We need help *ASAP."

Raindancer sank within about 15 minutes, the group said. Their rescue took much longer that, with the four friends out on the open waters for roughly nine hours before they could be sure they would live to tell the tale.

Peruvian officials picked up the group's distress signal and the U.S. Coast Guard was alerted, with its District 11 in Alameda, California, being in charge of U.S. vessels in the Pacific.

Ultimately, it was another sailing vessel, the Rolling Stones, that came to the group's aid after Joyce shared the incident on a Facebook boat watch group.

Geoff Stone, captain of the Rolling Stones, said they were about 60 or 65 miles away when his crew members realized that their vessel was the closest boat.

After searching the waters, they were eventually able to locate the group of friends.

“We were shocked that we found them," Stone said.

The timing of the rescue, which unfolded at night, appeared to be critical as the Stones' crew members were able to see the light from the dinghy bobbing in the darkness.

Rodriguez lost his boat and the group of friends said they also lost their passports and many of their possessions, but they said they were just grateful to be alive.

The severity of the injuries sustained by the whale were not immediately clear.

Kate Wilson, a spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission, told The Washington Post, which first reported the story, that there have been about 1,200 reports of whales and boats colliding since a worldwide database launched in 2007.

Collisions causing significant damage are rare, the Coast Guard told the outlet. It noted that the last rescue attributed to impact from a whale was the sinking of a 40-foot J-Boat in 2009 off Baja California. The crew in that incident was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.

One member of Raindancer's sailing crew, Bianca Brateanu, said the more recent incident, however harrowing, left her feeling more confident in her survival skills.

“This experience made me realize how, you know how capable we are, and how, how skilled we are to manage and cope with situations like this,” she said.

In an Instagram post, Rodriguez said he would remember his boat "for the rest of my life."

"What’s left of my home, the pictures on the wall, belongings, pizza in the oven, cameras, journals, all of it, will forever be preserved by the sea," he said.

"As for me, I had a temporary mistrust in the ocean. But I’m quickly realizing I’m still the same person," Rodriguez wrote. “I often think about the whale who likely lost its life, but is hopefully ok. I'm not sure what my next move will be. But my attraction to the sea hasn’t been shaken."

Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London. 

Sam Brock is an NBC News correspondent.

May 24, 2023

Why Has a Group of Orcas Suddenly Started Attacking Boats?

Killer whales in a group near Spain and Portugal may be teaching one another to mess with small boats. They sank their third vessel earlier this month

By Stephanie Pappas

A group of three orcas, also known as killer whales, are seen swimming in the Strait of Gibraltar. Individuals in the critically endangered subpopulation have been attacking boats off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Malcolm Schuyl/Alamy Stock Photo

A trio of orcas attacked a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar earlier this month, damaging it so badly that it sank soon afterward.

The May 4 incident was the third time killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) have sunk a vessel off the coasts of Portugal and Spain in the past three years. The subpopulation of orcas in this region began harassing boats, most often by biting at their rudder, in 2020. Almost 20 percent of these attacks caused enough damage to disable the vessels, says Alfredo López, an orca researcher at the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), which monitors the Iberian killer whale population. “It is a rare behavior that has only been detected in this part of the world,” he says.

Researchers aren’t sure why the orcas are going after the watercraft. There are two hypotheses, according to López. One is that the killer whales have invented a new fad, something that subpopulations of these members of the dolphin family are known to do. Much as in humans, orca fads are often spearheaded by juveniles, López says. Alternatively, the attacks may be a response to a bad past experience involving a boat.

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The first known incident occurred in May 2020 in the Strait of Gibraltar, an area with heavy boat traffic. Since then GTOA has recorded 505 cases of orcas reacting to boats. Sometimes they simply approached the vessels, and only a fraction of cases involved physical contact, López says. In a study published in June 2022 in Marine Mammal Science , he and his colleagues cataloged 49 instances of orca-boat contact in 2020 alone. The vast majority of the attacks were on sailboats or catamarans, with a handful involving fishing boats and motorboats. The average length of the vessels was 12 meters (39 feet). For comparison, a full-grown orca can be 9.2 meters (30 feet) long.

The researchers found that the orcas preferentially attack the boats’ rudder, sometimes scraping the hull with their teeth. Such attacks often snap the rudder, leaving the boat unable to navigate. In three cases, the animals damaged a boat so badly that it sank: In July 2022 they sank a sailboat with five people onboard. In November 2022 they caused a sailboat carrying four to go down. And finally, in this month’s attack, the Swiss sailing yacht Champagne had to be abandoned, and the vessel sank while it was towed to shore. In all cases, the people onboard were rescued safely.

In 2020 researchers observed nine different individual killer whales attacking boats; it’s unclear if others have since joined in. The attacks tended to come from two separate groups: a trio of juveniles occasionally joined by a fourth and a mixed-aged group consisting of an adult female named White Gladis, two of her young offspring and two of her sisters. Because White Gladis was the only adult involved in the initial incidents, the researchers speculate that she may have become entangled in a fishing line at some point, giving her a bad association with boats. Other adult orcas in the region have injuries consistent with boat collisions or entanglement, López says. “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,” he says.

The safe rescue of everyone involved, however, suggests to Deborah Giles that these orcas don’t have malevolent motivations against humans. Giles, science and research director of the Washington State–based nonprofit conservation organization Wild Orca, points out that humans relentlessly harassed killer whales off the coasts of Washington and Oregon in the 1960s and 1970s, capturing young orcas and taking them away for display at marine parks. “These are animals that, every single one of them, had been captured at one point or another—most whales multiple times. And these are whales that saw their babies being taken away from them and put on trucks and driven away, never to be seen again,” Giles says. “And yet these whales never attacked boats, never attacked humans.”

Though it’s possible that the orcas around the Iberian Peninsula could be reacting to a bad experience with a boat, Giles says, it’s pure speculation to attribute that motivation to the animals. The behavior does seem to be learned, she says, but could simply be a fad without much rhyme or reason—to the human mind, anyway. Famously, some members of the Southern Resident orcas that cruise Washington’s Puget Sound each summer and fall spent the summer of 1987 wearing dead salmon on their head. There was no apparent reason for salmon hats to come in vogue in orca circles, but the behavior spread and persisted for a few months before disappearing again. “We’re not going to know what’s happening with this population,” Giles says, referring to the Iberian orcas.

The Iberian orca attacks typically last less than 30 minutes, but they can sometimes go on for up to two hours, according to the 2022 study. In the case of the Champagne, two juvenile killer whales went after the rudder while an adult repeatedly rammed the boat, crew members told the German magazine Yacht . The attack lasted 90 minutes.

The Iberian orca subpopulation is considered critically endangered, with only 39 animals the last time a full census was conducted in 2011. A 2014 study found that this subpopulation follows the migration of their key prey , Atlantic bluefin tuna—a route that puts them in close contact with human fishing, military activities and recreational boating. Maritime authorities recommend that boaters in the area slow down and try to stay away from orcas, López says, but there is no guaranteed way to avoid the animals. He and his colleagues fear the boat attacks will come back and bite the orcas, either because boaters will lash out or because the attacks are dangerous to the animals themselves. “They run a great risk of getting hurt,” López says.

Orcas sank a third boat. Scientists think these 'brutal' attacks may be trauma-driven.

• Orcas keep attacking sailboats off the coasts of Spain and Morocco.
• Earlier this month two attacks were reported where one ended up sinking the boat.
• Scientists can't explain the attacks but one leading theory points to a single, traumatized orca.

Orcas are targeting sailboats near the Iberian Peninsula, and nobody knows why.

Most of the attacks involve multiple orcas ramming the boat but it remains afloat. In several cases, however, the animals have managed to sink entire boats.

The third case of orcas sinking a boat happened earlier this month off the Iberian coast, LiveScience reported .

"The attacks were brutal"

Skipper Werner Schaufelberger was sailing at night off the coast of Spain when three orcas started to attack his boat.

"At first I thought we had hit something. But then I quickly realized that it was orcas attacking the ship," Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht .

"The attacks were brutal. There were two smaller and one larger orca. The two little ones shook the rudder while the big one kept running and then rammed the ship from the side with full force," he added.

The Spanish coast guard rescued Schaufelberger and the rest of the crew and towed the boat to port, where it sank right before reaching port.

Related stories

It's important to note that the vast majority of interactions with orcas don't end with a sunk boat. These attacks near the Iberian Peninsula may be due to a single, traumatized orca that has taught this behavior to other, fellow orcas, LiveScience reported.

"The orcas are doing this on purpose, 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," biologist Alfredo López Fernandez at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and representative of the Atlantic Orca Working Group, told LiveScience. 

Other orca attacks

Schaufenlberger wasn't the only victim this month. On May 2, Greg Blackburn thought his boat was hitting rough waves when the thumps began as he sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar near Tangier, Morocco, according to 9News .

But as the jolts continued, and the rudder seemed to resist his steering, Blackburn looked down and saw two orcas repeatedly ramming his boat, and soon two more joined in.

"There's not a lot you can do at that point," Blackburn, a sailor from the UK, told 9News. "After reading reports and knowing what has been going on, just thought we were in for a ride now."

Another pair of notable orca attacks occurred last July, when a pod of orcas struck a sailboat off the coast of Portugal and, just hours later, targeted another vessel in the same area, according to reports.

Orca attacks are becoming more common

A collaboration of researchers has recorded more than 200 reports of "interactions," where orcas approach or touch a vessel, along Portugal and Spain's Iberian Peninsula since 2020.

Insider previously reported in 2020 about a series of aggressive actions by orcas along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. At the time, scientists had different theories: The killer whales could be acting out of curiosity, mischief, territoriality, or trauma.

López Fernandez suspects that one, traumatized female orca may be to blame. Her name is White Gladis and, according to LiveScience, she may have experienced a collision with a boat or entrapment during illegal fishing. The incident changed something in Gladis.

"That traumatized orca is the one that started this behavior of physical contact with the boat," López Fernandez told LiveScience.

Whatever the reason for the growing number of attacks — whether it's Gladis or something else — if you encounter an orca in the wild there are some guidelines for what to do:

• Keep a low profile on deck. Don't excite the orcas.
• Contact authorities on VHF 16, or by phone on 112

If the orcas ram your boat, secure yourself to something because the last thing you should ever do is enter the water when orcas are nearby.

Correction: May 9, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of the 200 orca incidents reported since 2020, as well as the origin of that statistic. Those reports were of interactions between orcas and boats, not necessarily attacks. And that number comes from a collaboration of scientists collecting reports, not from local media outlets.

This post has been updated with new information. It was originally published on August 13, 2022.

Watch: Orcas are under threat from man-made noise pollution. These scientists are fighting to protect them.

• Main content

Orcas sink another boat in Europe after a nearly hour-long attack

For the fourth time in two years, a group of unusually brazen orcas in southwestern Europe have sunk a sailing boat after relentlessly attacking it for almost an hour on Halloween.

A pod of orcas has attacked and sunk another boat in southwestern Europe after relentlessly bombarding the vessel and its crew for almost an hour on Halloween. It is the fourth time that orcas from this region's population have sunk a vessel in the last two years.

On Oct. 31, the Grazie Mamma — a mid-size sailing yacht owned by Polish cruise company Morskie Mile — was attacked by an unknown number of orcas for around 45 minutes off the coast of Morocco in the Strait of Gibraltar, Morskie Mile representatives wrote in a Facebook post translated from Polish.

The orcas ( Orcinus orca ), also known as killer whales , repeatedly hit the yacht's rudder causing major damage and allowing water into the vessel's hull. Despite receiving aid from the Moroccan Navy and being towed toward safety, the boat eventually sank as it entered the port of Tanger-Med in Morocco. All passengers were safely evacuated to rescue boats before the ship sank.

The unusual attack is the latest example of one of many unnerving new orca behaviors that have highlighted the striking intelligence of these deadly predators. 

Related: 11 ways orcas show their terrifying intelligence  

Since 2020, orcas have been regularly harassing boats in the Strait of Gibraltar — a narrow strait between Spain and Morocco that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea — and the surrounding waters off the coast of the Iberian peninsula. 

These nautical raids were likely started by a pod including White Gladis, a female orca who may have been traumatized by a past boat collision . The unusual behavior then spread among other individuals who seem to be becoming more daring and efficient with their attack s .

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So far, at least three other boats have been sunk in the area , with the most recent incident occurring in May 2023 and the previous two both occurring in 2022. And in June, a yacht had its rudder ripped clean off with "ruthless efficiency" in a 15-minute attack. 

Researchers suspect that orcas are learning to attack boats from one another. Witnesses have also reported seeing orcas "teach" other individuals how to maximize the damage they cause, Live Science previously reported.

Related: How often do orcas attack humans?

So far, only one other boat has been attacked outside of the Strait of Gibraltar and its surrounding waters: A yacht in Scotland, more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away, which was rammed by a lone individual . However, it is impossible to directly link this attack to the other orcas. 

— Orca appears to adopt (or abduct) a baby pilot whale

— Extremely rare white killer whale spotted off California coast

— Dolphins and orcas have passed the evolutionary point of no return to live on land again  

Boat attacks are not the only unusual learned orca behavior that scientists have taken note of in recent years. 

Since 2017, a pair of orcas known as Port and Starboard have killed dozens of great white sharks in South Africa by ripping out their livers. And on Oct. 17 this year, this behavior was also documented in Australia for the first time , hinting it may also be spreading.  

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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• Rivegauche610 Time to start responding with extreme prejudice. Who do they think they are, trumpanzees? Russians? Reply
• orcaenjoyer Time to start breeding more orcas and letting them loose in the Mediterranean and Somalian coasts Reply
• Orca10 I definitely agree with that idea...they are retaliating to the abuse they suffered from human beings....remember, they are highly intelligent.... Reply
• Thorneel Might be no harm to carry a cattle prod on-board, to teach them another lesson. Reply
• georgeodjungle We've been experimenting with a trailing hot wire it's a little hard on the anodes but they turn tail works on mostly everything except seals 12 volt okay 24 works better 120 works really really well but again it's hard on the anodes Reply
• dmissu2 After years we now believe, thanks to all the scientific world discoveries information shared with the world that Orcas are smart, very smart. I submit that in this particular area of the world/oceans these Orcas, perhaps even a pod or more, have been strongly offended by humans in some way and over the last couple of years are now making their objections known. Perhaps suspicious boaters have injured them, killed an orca (young or a leader) either intentionally or not, humans have strongly upset them and they want us to know. Perhaps it continues to occur and they want us to stop. I believe the authorities in this area need to investigate and figure out if something humans are doing have set them off and stop it from happening before more innocent boaters pay the price of those without conscious. Reply
• georgeodjungle Hotwire,,, problem solved Reply
• Pennyforthoughts Note to Harry Baker: photo supposedly depicting the orcas in the Strait of Gilbraltor looks, in fact, like an image of orcas in the Strait of Georgia (or the Georgia Strait) between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island in Canada. Orcas are plentiful there....as are photos of orcas. Reply
• Zuhalter BREAKING: Biden vows to stop orcas at any cost, requests Congress to send $4 billion arms package to Europe and increase sanctions against Sea World. In response, Shamu releases press statement: "Mrrrrrrrrr, eee eeeeee.... kiiiiikk-k-k-k-, klik klik klik-k-k-k.... raaaawwrrrrr! Reply
• fekubichonigo Too bad the "people" didn't die. I spit on the rich Reply
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Group of orcas attack and sink vessels off Iberian Peninsula

Stephanie Sy Stephanie Sy

Courtney Norris Courtney Norris

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/group-of-orcas-attack-and-sink-vessels-off-iberian-peninsula

A small group of orcas is causing a lot of damage to boats off the Iberian Peninsula. Last month, killer whales rammed a boat continuously for over an hour, managing to remove the rudder. In another incident, three orcas repeatedly struck a yacht causing it to sink. Stephanie Sy reports.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

A small group of orcas is causing a lot of damage to boats off the Iberian Peninsula, raising questions about why the orcas are doing it.

Stephanie Sy looked into it and has this report.

Stephanie Sy:

In the middle of the night last October, Artur Napoleao was sailing miles off the coast of Portugal to deliver a boat to a client. As a professional skipper and sail instructor, it's a journey he's taken many times before.

Artur Napoleao, Professional Skipper and Sail Instructor: At 4:00 a.m., it was my turn to go to sleep. So, I went down. I start taking my nap, and, 30 minutes later, boom.

He ran up to the deck to find the boat surrounded by a pod of orcas.

Artur Napoleao:

They mess around for five minutes, and then they went to another boat more far away from me, like one, two miles.

But the pod returned, not once, but three times, the visits spanning over several hours, well after sunrise.

I got really scared, until I realized, until I saw the orcas and see their moments and how gentle they were when I stopped the boat.

In the past three years, hundreds of boat and orca interactions have been reported off the coasts of Portugal, Spain, and Morocco.

According to the Spanish research group GTOA, in 2022, there were 207 reported interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar alone. The strait is a narrow waterway that separates Spain and Morocco. And the meetings are not always gentle.

Just last month, killer whales surrounding a boat sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar were met with loud noises, an attempt by the crew to scare them off. The pod rammed the boat continuously for over an hour, managing to remove the rudder. With seawater gushing into the boat, the experienced crew of four issued a mayday call, and were eventually towed to shore unharmed.

In another recent instance off the coast of Spain, three orcas repeatedly struck a yacht, causing it to sink entirely after Spanish Coast Guards rescued the crew on board.

Rui Alves, Creator, Orcas.pt:

We are having one incident every day, on average, OK? There are days we have two or three.

To better track these events, Rui Alves started this Web site last year to log orca encounters. It connects a network of sailors who share geographic locations of sightings and attacks along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. This map shows incidents reported just this month.

So, for me, it was an idea. If you spread the word about something that happens in an area, people will avoid that area. Maybe they will keep the boat and say, I don't sail today because there are many orcas at that point. I will sail tomorrow, or maybe I will go in another direction.

Orcas living near the Iberian Peninsula are a distinct subpopulation and a critically endangered one.

But why these orcas are repeatedly damaging boats is something experts are trying to understand. One theory making the rounds? Revenge. Some scientists believe an orca named White Gladis suffered a traumatic injury from a boat, and may be teaching other orcas how to attack similar vessels.

But Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, says that kind of activity would be uncharacteristic of the animal she studies. Play is a more likely explanation, she says.

Monika Wieland Shields, President, Orca Behavior Institute:

It's just not something that we have seen, for whatever reason. They're the top predator in the ocean. They're capable of attacking and killing all kinds of species that are around them.

But they have never targeted that talent or that predator-like behavior towards humans.

Despite the killer whale nickname, orcas are the largest species in the dolphin family, and no humans have yet to report major injuries from the boat confrontations.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

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Stephanie Sy is a PBS NewsHour correspondent and serves as anchor of PBS NewsHour West. Throughout her career, she served in anchor and correspondent capacities for ABC News, Al Jazeera America, CBSN, CNN International, and PBS NewsHour Weekend. Prior to joining NewsHour, she was with Yahoo News where she anchored coverage of the 2018 Midterm Elections and reported from Donald Trump’s victory party on Election Day 2016.

Courtney Norris is the deputy senior producer of national affairs for the NewsHour. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @courtneyknorris

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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.

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.

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Orcas Sink Fourth Boat Off Iberia, Unnerving Sailors

Orcas caused enough damage to sink a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar last week. A small pod has been slamming boats in recent years, worrying skippers charting routes closer to shore.

By Isabella Kwai

The yacht Grazie Mamma II carried its crew along the coastlines and archipelagos of the Mediterranean. Its last adventure was off the coast of Morocco last week, when it encountered a pod of orcas.

The marine animals slammed the yacht’s rudder for 45 minutes, causing major damage and a leak, according to Morskie Mile , the boat’s Polish operators. The crew escaped, and rescuers and the Moroccan Navy tried to tow the yacht to safety, but it sank near the port of Tanger Med, the operator said on its website.

The account of the sinking is adding to the worries of many sailors along the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, where marine biologists are studying a puzzling phenomenon: Orcas are jostling and ramming boats in interactions that have disrupted dozens of voyages and caused at least four boats in the past two years to sink.

The largest of the dolphin family, orcas are playful apex predators that hunt sharks, whales and other prey but are generally amiable to humans in the wild . The orcas hunting in the Strait of Gibraltar are considered to be endangered , and researchers have noticed an upsurge of unusual behavior since 2020: A small group of the marine animals have been battering boats in the busy routes around Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

While most interactions occur in the waters of southwestern Europe and North Africa, an orca also reportedly rammed a yacht some 2,000 miles north off the coast of Scotland, according to The Guardian.

“Orcas are complex, intelligent, highly social,” Erich Hoyt, a research fellow at Whale and Dolphin Conservation and author of “Orca: The Whale Called Killer,” said. “We’re still at the early stages of trying to understand this behavior.”

Researchers have pushed back at the idea that orcas are attacking vessels. Instead, they theorize that the rudders of boats have become a plaything for curious young orcas and that the behavior has become a learned fad spreading through the population. Another hypothesis, according to biologists who published a study on the population last June, is that the ramming is an “adverse behavior” because of a bad experience between an orca and a boat — though researchers tend to favor the first.

It is unclear what will stop the ramming, whether it’s playful or otherwise, a point that has left anxious skippers traveling these parts sharing advice in Facebook groups dedicated to tracking such interactions .

“It’s been an interesting summer hiding in shallow waters,” said Greg Blackburn, a skipper based in Gibraltar. Orcas slammed into a boat he was commanding in May and chewed at the rudder, he said, though the vessel was able to return to shore.

The encounter left an impression: On a recent trip to Barcelona, Mr. Blackburn had to pass through a patch where orcas had been sighted the week before. “I genuinely felt sick for about three hours,” he said, “just watching the horizon constantly for a fin to pop up.”

Conservationists, maritime rescue groups and yacht clubs are partnering to navigate the challenge of preserving an endangered population and helping sailors avoid calamity. The Cruising Association, a club supporting sailors, has recommended safety protocols for orca encounters, such as disconnecting the boat’s autopilot and staying quiet. Skippers have offered one another anecdotal advice to deter attacks, including throwing sand into the water and banging loudly on the boat.

Before leaving shore, seagoers can also consult digital platforms that now track reported orca sightings and interactions in the region. This can help them avoid the animals, or chart a route closer to shore, said Bruno Díaz López, a biologist and the director of the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute based in Galicia, Spain.

“We suggested the boats stay in shallow waters,” he said, adding that they had noticed more boats changing their journeys. “Maybe the trip takes longer, yes. But it is worth it.”

Mr. Blackburn, the skipper, said he had heard of people resorting to throwing firecrackers into the sea to try to scare the animals away, adding that the boats served as people’s homes on the ocean. “At the end of the day, if you’re protecting your home what are you going to do?”

But the ocean is the orcas’ home, and conservationists say scaring the animals is not a solution.

“It is not about winning a battle, because this is not a war,” Mr. López said. “We need to be respectful.”

Isabella Kwai is a breaking news reporter in the London bureau. She joined The Times in 2017 as part of the Australia bureau. More about Isabella Kwai

Killer whales severely damage sail boat off the coast of southern Spain

 A pod of killer whales has severely damaged a sailing boat off the coast of southern Spain, adding to dozens of orca attacks on vessels recorded this year on Spanish and Portuguese coasts.

Key points:

• Last year there were 207 reported interactions between orcas and small vessels
• Killer whales can measure up to eight metres and weigh up to six tonnes as adults
• The attack follows at least 20 interactions in May, alone, in the Strait of Gibraltar

On Thursday (local time), a pod of orcas broke the rudder and pierced the hull after ramming into the Mustique on its way to Gibraltar, prompting its crew of four to contact Spanish authorities for help, a spokesman for the local maritime rescue service said.

The service deployed a rapid-response vessel and a helicopter carrying a bilge pump to assist the 20-metre vessel, which was sailing under a British flag, the spokesman added.

The Mustique was towed to the port of Barbate, in the province of Cadiz, for repairs.

According to the research group Groupo Trabajo Orca Atlantica (GTOA), which tracks populations of the Iberian orca sub-species, the attack follows at least 20 interactions in May, alone, in the Strait of Gibraltar between small vessels and the highly social apex predators. 

In 2022, there were 207 reported interactions, GTOA data showed.

Although endangered orcas are part of the dolphin family, they can measure up to eight metres and weigh up to six tonnes as adults

Earlier in May, the sailing yacht Alboran Champagne suffered a similar impact from three orcas 0.9 kilometres off Barbate.

The ship could not be towed as it was completely flooded and was left adrift to sink.

Spanish Transport Ministry guidelines state that whenever ships observe any alteration in the behaviour of orcas — such as sudden changes of direction or speed — they should leave the area as soon as possible and avoid further disturbance to the animals during the manoeuvres.

Every interaction between a ship and an orca must be reported to authorities, the ministry added.

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

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?

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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

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.

Watch CBS News

Killer whales sink yacht after 45-minute attack, Polish tour company says

By Emily Mae Czachor

November 6, 2023 / 9:58 AM EST / CBS News

A group of orcas managed to sink a yacht off the coast of Morocco last week, after its 45-minute attack on the vessel caused irreparable damage, a Polish tour company said.

The incident happened Tuesday, Oct. 31, as a crew with the boat touring group sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar. The narrow waterway bridges the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which separates the southern tip of Europe from northern Africa. 

A pod of orcas, colloquially called killer whales, approached the yacht and "hit the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing major damage and leakage," the tour agency Morskie Mile, which is based in Warsaw and operated the yacht, wrote on  Facebook in a translated post.

Although its captain and crew were assisted by a search-and-rescue team as well as the Moroccan Navy, the yacht could not be salvaged. It sank near the entrance to the port of Tanger-Med, a major complex of ports some 30 miles northeast of Tangier along the Strait of Gibraltar. None of the crew members were harmed, said the Polish tour agency, adding that those on board the sunken yacht were already safe and in Spain by the time their Facebook post went live. 

"This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us. Longtime friendships formed on board," wrote Morskie Mile. The company said it was involved in other upcoming cruises in the Canary Islands and would work to make sure those boat trips went ahead as planned.

Last week's incident in the Strait of Gibraltar was not the first of its kind. Reported attacks by killer whales that seem to be trying deliberately to capsize boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal have more than tripled over the last two years, according to data  released in the spring by the research group GTOA, which studies orcas around Gibraltar.

"Nobody knows why this is happening," Andrew W. Trites, professor and director of Marine Mammal Research at the University of British Columbia, told CBS News in May. "My idea, or what anyone would give you, is informed speculation. It is a total mystery, unprecedented." 

GTOA recorded 52 maritime interactions with orcas between the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia, a coastal province in northwestern Spain, between July and November 2020. The incidents picked up in the years that followed, with 197 interactions recorded in 2021 and 207 recorded in 2022, GTOA said, noting that the interactions mainly affected sailboats. 

Then, in June of this year, one of two sailing teams involved in an international race around the world reported a frightening confrontation involving multiple orcas as they traveled through the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar. The teams, which were competing in The Ocean Race, said the orcas did not damage their boats or harm crews, but recalled the sea creatures pushing up against and, in one instance, ramming into one of the boats. The orcas also nudged and bit the rudders, one crew member said.

Caitlin O'Kane and Kerry Breen contributed to this report.

Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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Orcas sink another boat in Strait of Gibraltar off Morocco

For years, the region’s killer whales have been bumping, biting and, in some cases, sinking boats. but many scientists caution not to ascribe motive to the animals..

The orcas have done it again.

On Oct. 31, a pod of killer whales swarmed a Polish yacht sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar. For 45 minutes, the orcas hit the vessel’s rudder and damaged the boat, according to the company that operated it. Despite rescue efforts, the yacht never made it back to shore, sinking near the entrance of the Moroccan port of Tanger Med.

“The crew is safe, unharmed and sound,” the Polish tour company Morskie Mile wrote in a Facebook post describing the demise of its boat.

Since 2020, orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar and along the Iberian Peninsula have been bumping and biting boats — oftentimes, yachts — in dozens of incidents that have frightened mariners and confounded scientists.

A recent spate of killer whales sinking boats delighted online observers who anthropomorphize the marine mammals and hail them as working-class heroes.

Are the orcas really out to get us? What to know about recent attacks.

Fishing vessels and motorboats have all had their run-ins with orcas in the region, though sailboats appear to be the most popular target, according to a 2022 study . The tour agency Morskie Mile did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

No one is quite sure what is prompting the orcas to go after vessels — whether the whales are simply being playful, or had a bad run-in with a boat in the past, prompting the aggressive behavior.

Some scientists say the incidents should not be called “attacks” at all, since the whale’s motives are unknown. Perpetuating the idea that whales are out for revenge, they fear, may lead to retaliation by boaters.

“We urge the media and public to avoid projecting narratives onto these animals,” a group of more than 30 scientists wrote in an open letter this summer. “In the absence of further evidence, people should not assume they understand the animals’ motivations.”

What we do know is that orcas are highly intelligent marine mammals that appear to learn from one another. Usually, that learned behavior is a hunting strategy, such as corralling and eating massive blue whales .

Other times, it is something stranger, such as when orcas near Seattle were observed “wearing” dead salmon as hats. Orcas, it turns out, can be victims of cultural fads, too.

One other thing is clear: Killer whales normally don’t hurt people. And humans are a bigger threat to them than they are to us.

Getting entangled in fishing gear or struck by speeding boats is a threat for all whales. With perhaps fewer than 40 individuals left , the orca population off the coasts of Spain, Portugal and Morocco is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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Pod of killer whales SINKS tourist boat off the coast of Portugal in latest of dozens of terrifying orca attacks

• Jacob Bentley-York
• Published : 10:16 ET, Aug 4 2022
• Updated : 11:33 ET, Aug 4 2022

FIVE people have been rescued after a pod of crazed killer whales sank a tourist boat off the coast of Portugal.

The 25ft orcas smashed a hole in the hull six miles from the port of Sines on Sunday afternoon - the latest of dozens of terrifying attacks.

According to Portugal News , the crew of holidaymakers were forced to abandon their vessel as it took on water amid violent ramming.

They bailed out into a life raft and were picked up by a fishing vessel alerted by the Navy.

Thankfully everyone on board escaped injury.

The Portuguese Navy said: “The Navy, in conjunction with the Captain of the Port of Sines, coordinated the rescue of five crew members who were on the life raft of their sailboat after it sunk following an interaction with orcas 11km off the coast.

"The fishing vessel 'Festas André' was immediately engaged, which carried out the rescue of the five people on board, and a vessel from the Sines Lifeguard Station that accompanied the fishing vessel to the port of Sines, where it docked safely at 2.43.”

It comes after an alarming spate of rogue orca attacks with more than 50 reported incidents in 2020 and 2021.

Sailors have told of their terrifying ordeals, recounting how they feared for their lives as the whales rammed their boats for hours and broke off rudders.

In one account, 45-year-old Martin Evans feared his vessel would sink after an “onslaught” of roughly 30 orcas.

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He described how the five-ton mammals rammed his boat as his crew sailed near  the Strait of Gibraltar .

“I began to think: ‘Is this how it all ends?," his crewmate Nathan told The Sun.

Meanwhile, another incident reportedly left one Brit “terrified” after a group of orcas slammed into his boat for hours on end.

"It was continuous. I think there were six or seven animals," he told the BBC.

"I was definitely preparing to ask the Portuguese coastguard to send a helicopter to get us off".

Several videos of the incidents have since been captured which show the huge black and white creatures buffeting boats and circling vessels.

Scientists have recorded a particular increase in orca incidents along the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal.

The attacks, some of which have left boats damaged, have taken place in different parts of the Spanish north coast and the Iberian peninsula.

It promoted the Spanish government to issue a temporarily ban on sailboats sailing in certain regions to prevent further attacks.

'REVENGE ATTACKS'

Amid increasing regularity, one expert suggested a harpoon strike by poachers had sparked a spate of "revenge attacks" from a rogue orca pod.

Victor J Hernandez, author and naturalist, said an  illegal fishing incident in July  sparked an increasing number of run-ins between the animals and passing vessels.

Hernandez believes the attacks have been carried out by a pod of between nine and 13 orcas, led by a male called Pingu.

Hernandez said: "Sailors in the area who know Pingu’s pod very well due to their markings have claimed that they were attacked with harpoons in July.

"The crew of the illegal fishing boat was probably scared when they saw them approaching so close."

ORCAS - HOW DANGEROUS ARE THEY?

ORCAS - also known as killer whales - are the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family.

The creatures are dubbed "killer whales" as they hunt and eat other smaller species of dolphin.

Some also feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals like seals and other dolphins.

They're known as apex predators meaning they're at the top of the food-chain and no other animals feed on them.

There are no recorded incidents of orcas attacking humans before the bizarre boat-bashings, but they have been known to feast on other land-dwelling mammals like moose who swim between islands.

According to Hernandez, orcas have a good memory - like dolphins: "Two of the youngest orcas have been hitting sailboats because they are traumatised by these kinds of vessels. 

"They hit and bite the rudders because it reminds them of the harpoon incident."

Experts are still divided on whether the giant creatures are "playing" with or attacking the boats - but one sailor caught up in a 30-hour barrage where an orca battered his boat said anyone who experiences it would be scared.

Christian Bach, from Switzerland said: "They talk about interactions, about games.

"I would like to see some of those biologists on board my ship at dawn on Sunday. I think they would also be afraid."

DANGEROUS PLAY

But scientist Dr Ruth Esteban suggests the killer whales have been playing, rather than attacking.

"They always seem to go for the rudder, and I think that’s because it’s a mobile part of the vessel," Ruth, who has previously studied this population of orcas, told the BBC.

"In some cases they can move the whole boat with it. We see, in some of the videos, the sailing boat turning almost 180 degrees.

"If they see that they have the power to move something really big, maybe that’s really impressive for them."

Ruth acknowledges the incidents must have been "really scary" for those involved, but she said it should not be called an "attack".

"We call it an interaction," she said.

Biologist Renaud de Stephanis, who investigated the attacks during 2020 and 2021 said he has experienced the behaviour on his own boat, when a group of orcas chased it.

“They love it. And don’t know why,” he told the BBC. "It just seems to be something they really like and that’s it."

Though killer whales they do not typically attack humans, their name refers to the mammal's ability to take down large marine animals, such as sea lions and whales, according to  Live Science .

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According to  SeaWorld , it is difficult to know the number of killer whales given their worldwide distribution, but it is estimated that there are about 50,000.

Listed as endangered since 2005, the orcas' population has been declining over the years.

Solitary killer whale devours shark in two minutes to defy group hunting habits

O rcas, also known as killer whales, are renowned for working in groups. Together they attack sea lions, seals and in recent times even sailboats and private yachts . However, teamwork is not for Starboard, who prefers to act alone. This is the first killer whale in history that has been observed individually hunting a great white shark and devouring it in just two minutes. The staggering predation was captured by a group of scientists off the coast of Mossel Bay (South Africa) and marks an unprecedented behavior that highlights the killer whales’ remarkable dexterity and super-predatory abilities. The findings were published in the African Journal of Marine Science on Friday.

The marine biologist, Alison Towner of Bangor University (Wales, UK) is a great white shark specialist in the region. Thanks to her monitoring of these large predators, together with her team she managed to identify that since 2017 a pair of killer whales hunted and killed sharks off the coast of South Africa, driving large numbers out of their natural settlement spots. They published their findings in the same journal in 2022 and kept documenting the behavior, until they came across the orca Starboard, whose name is derived from a wound on a dorsal fin. The team observed that Starboard acted alone and managed to incapacitate and consume a 2.5-meter shark in a remarkable two minutes. “The moment when Starboard swiftly hunted down my favorite species of shark was both devastating and powerful,” explains Towner. In these interactions, at least two other sharks were killed by orca attacks, as evidenced by the nearby discovery of a second 3.5-meter carcass.

By hunting together, killer whales can circle prey and use their collective intelligence and brawn to attack. Though they can tackle large animals individually, this is the first case involving one of the world’s largest predators . The adroitness with which Starboard devoured the shark suggests remarkable skills, as the research team found that killer whales are showing a strong preference for extracting and consuming livers, which are rich in lipids. This remarkable discovery has been described as specialized feeding behavior. “The observations add more layers to the fascinating story of killer whales and their capabilities as intelligent predators,” says Towner. Although she concedes that it cannot be speculated that this signals a change in hunting strategy, she does believe that it is likely to be a technique previously used. “Killer whales can quickly learn new hunting techniques on their own or from others,” she adds.

Paul Tixier, a marine biologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, says that great white sharks in this region have a low-risk perception of orcas because hunting them is “novel behavior.” These dynamics could lead to selection pressures if sharks continue to perceive killer whales as a low risk. Great white sharks are classified as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Despite the startling discovery, the occurrence has also raised concerns among experts. The finding, they explain, raises critical questions about the impact and ecological repercussions that predation by killer whales may have on shark populations in the region. “The decline of sharks in the oceans causes cascading impacts on marine ecosystems due to an imbalance in predators,” explains the author. For this reason, they believe it is essential to understand the ecological dynamics for marine conservation efforts.

Specialists point to the need for further research on the causes, but suggest human pressures as a possible cause of the orcas’ displacement. Especially for activities such as hunting and fishing. “Great white sharks are displaced and survival and relocation patterns carry potential risks, such as the overlap with fishing or human encounters in remote coastal areas further east,” Towner points out. This species serves as an important biological flux of nutrients between ecosystems, and therefore abandonment of an area or reduced foraging success can have long-term consequences on the nutrient cycle.

Esther Jacobs, of the marine conservation initiative Keep Fin Alive, acknowledges that while she was astonished to see the predation, she was also concerned about the “profound impact” it could have on the marine ecology. Both the author and Jacobs suggest that given the scenario of changing environmental conditions, constant ecological monitoring is essential to establish adaptive conservation strategies. “Collaboration with shore-based observers, boat-based tourists and various organizations played a critical role in capturing crucial data and video recordings of predation occurrences and might also be critical in conservation efforts.”

They conclude that more research is required to better understand the long-term implications of these interactions between killer whales and great white sharks. Tixier points out that a key strategy is to determine the total number of killer whales feeding on great white sharks and whether they all belong to the same population or to several ones. “Despite my admiration for these predators, I am more and more concerned about the marine ecological balance,” admits Jacobs.

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