Killer whales attack and sink a sailboat in the Strait of Gibraltar – again

A sailboat sank on Sunday in the Strait of Gibraltar after an unknown number of killer whales struck the vessel with two people on board and caused a water leak, officials said. The two crew members were rescued by a passing oil tanker, Spain’s maritime rescue service said, marking the latest killer whale attack on a boat, which has become a trend in recent years.

The incident occurred around 9 a.m. local time in the narrow strait between Spain and Morocco, which has become a notorious site of human interactions with groups of killer whales which, for reasons still unclear understood, sink into boats and sometimes even sink them. In this case, crew members of the yacht SV Alboran Cognac made an emergency call for an evacuation after encountering orcas about 14 miles off Cape Spartel.

Crew members reported feeling hits on the ship’s hull and rudder, which were damaged by the whales, rescue services said. The agency’s coordination center in Tarifa, on the Spanish side of the Strait of Gibraltar, helped organize their evacuation via the tanker MT Lascaux. The tanker was able to recover the crew members from the sinking yacht in less than an hour and they disembarked in Gibraltar before 10:30 a.m. They abandoned the SV Alboran Cognac, which then completely disappeared into the ocean.

Anyone sailing in the waters of the Gulf of Cádiz in southern Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar, whether on board a larger motorboat or personal sailboat, is advised to Avoid certain areas that the Maritime Rescue Service marks as potentially dangerous places for interactions with orcas. The greatest threats exist between May and August, when authorities say pods of killer whales are most commonly seen in these parts of the Atlantic.

But previously recorded incidents suggest that these dangers can be present at any time. Last October, a Polish boat tourism company reported that a pod of orcas managed to sink one of its yachts after repeatedly hitting the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing a leak. Last June, two sailing teams competed against each other in an international competition race around the world reported frightening scenarios in which several orcas rammed or pushed against their boats or while sailing west of Gibraltar.

No one on the ships was injured in these encounters, but the documented increase in confrontational behavior has researchers and sailors trying to determine why cases occurred. tried to sink or capsize so many boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.

Some sailors even resorted to explosive thrash metal music with the aim of deterring large predators.

Reports of orcas interacting with humans have more than tripled in the past two years, according to research group GTOA, which has documented hundreds of such incidents in the region since 2020. But some of the latest data suggests possible changes in the situation. orca tag, with the group reporting just 26 interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar and Bay of Biscay areas between January and May this year. This number is 65% lower than the number of interactions recorded in the region during the same months last year, and 40% lower than the average number of interactions recorded during the same months between 2021 and 2023, according to GTOA.