Orca Pod Damages Boats in Attacks off Moroccan and Gibraltar Coasts

On the Facebook page Orca Attack Reports on May 3, Greg Blackburn recounts that he was northwest of Tangier, Morocco, when at least six orcas appeared. "They struck the hull repeatedly and attacked the rudder," he wrote. In videos he posted, at least six orcas can be seen, including a very large one showing a small calf how to attack the rudder. After their departure, the crew found "significant damage to the rudder and two broken steering chains," Blackburn said.

A few days earlier, orcas had attacked boats off Gibraltar. On April 29, Renaud De Stephanis reported that an orca had broken the rudder of a catamaran in the Strait of Gibraltar. The next day, Dusan Zaharijevic reported that there had been "very hard attacks" by orcas in the same area. Two female orcas had violently struck the rudder of Anke Birkhoff’s boat on May 1 in the Bay of Barbate, off Spain.

These various attacks have made researchers think because orcas are not considered a threat to humans but to sharks and dolphins. "The local scientists who have been working with the orcas in this region for over 20 years have looked more closely at the incidents and so far, I think it’s fair to say we don’t know why these accidents and attacks are happening," David Lusseau, professor of marine sustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, told Newsweek. And he added: "Individual whales seem to be engaging in the same attack pattern, focusing on the rudder, which can lead to the immobilization of vessels."