In recent months we have witnessed several attacks by killer whales on ships on European coasts. A new one was announced yesterday morning, which happened at dawn. As reported by the organization of the Mapfre King’s Sailing Cup, a boat was attacked by a group of killer whales, this time already deep in the Mediterranean, unlike other episodes of attacks that had taken place in the Atlantic. The sailboat was heading to Palma to participate in the King’s Cup.
The Kapote Tercero, a Sun Fast 37, owned by owner Ignacio González Camacho, registered in the ORC 3 category, was forced to take refuge in Estepona to assess damages after suffering an encounter with cetaceans.
As reported by the organization, the crew of the ship is out of danger and without personal damage. They were towed by Salvament Marítim, as they had no rudder of the ship, and once in port, they assessed the damage to see if they could reach the Balearic Islands for the regatta.
This new incident with killer whales is added to the list of attacks carried out by these mammals in recent months, although the main difference is that this time it was in the Mediterranean Sea. Until now, all the attacks had taken place on the Atlantic coast, which is why this fact opens a new front to try to decipher the reason for the behavior of these cetaceans. About a month ago, the crew of two Ocean Race boats experienced a terrifying episode in the Strait of Gibraltar. The sailors were approached by a group of killer whales that struck the boat’s hull repeatedly, although, fortunately, there were no injuries and the boats did not suffer significant damage.
In May, three killer whales sank a sailboat near Gibraltar in the most serious attack of the twenty recorded this year so far. The Swiss ship Champagne was sunk at the entrance to the port of Barbate (Cádiz) as a result of the damage caused by three killer whales in a very violent attack that left no injuries.
Biologists disagree about the causes. Renaud de Stephanis attributes these collisions “to a childish game of the killer whales” which, little by little, “has been transmitted to the rest of the individuals”. The Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA) defends, for its part, two hypotheses. The first: orcas “have invented something new and are repeating it”. The second: they have developed an aversive behavior, which would be a trauma caused by a boat and “in which the speed of the boat could be a critical component”. Hence the fact that, they add, in the presence of a sailboat, they try to “reduce its speed by manipulating the rudder”.
