What is actually going on with the orcas?

Since the beginning of 2020, they have repeatedly attacked boats around the Iberian Peninsula (500 such incidents have been recorded). Science is faced with a puzzle.

A group of orcas that always attacks a sailing boat in the same way.

At first, they particularly target the rudders. They are rammed and sometimes bitten off, then the hull and keel are also targeted by the orcas. Such an attack often lasts over an hour.

Due to their size and weight of up to 3.6 tons, the animals could easily capsize such a boat - but you get the impression that they don't want to.

Why do they do that?

In 2022, the Cruising Association (CA ) launched a collaboration with GT Orca Atlántica to investigate the curious incidents. The new results are meagre, although 147 interactions have been examined in detail since then.

What is certain is that these are around 15 orcas from a population of less than 50 animals that exhibit a completely new type of behavior.

Various theories are now being discussed:

• Play: It could actually be that orca teenagers are simply living out their sturm und drang phase here. According to marine biologist and dolphin researcher Bruno Diaz, this theory is absolutely plausible.
• Hunting: Some of the affected sailors stated that they had the impression that older animals were trying to teach the younger ones something. This theory is congruent with that of the whale protection organization Wewhale, which also sees the hunting instinct or the learning of a certain technique as the primary cause.
• Stress: Marine mammal specialist Maria del Carmen Rodriguez believes that the increased ship traffic after the end of the pandemic measures and the resulting increase in noise have stressed the animals, resulting in behavioral abnormalities.
• One-off incident: Marine biologist Eva Maria Carpinelli believes that the orcas' lead animal has a memory of a past interaction with a sailing boat. The aggressive behavior towards the boats could simply have been passed on to the next generations. "These animals learn on a cultural level from one individual to another. Something has happened - they have communicated with each other and are intensely aggressive towards boats," explains the marine biologist.

Exciting. We'll keep you up to date with the latest findings. 💚