Norah, a 10.3-meter-long Koopmans 34 cruise ship, piloted solo by Wim Rutten, is the first vessel to be attacked by an orca in North Sea waters, in an action similar to those carried out in the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal in the last three years by the so-called orcas Gladis.
The new attack occurred last Monday and has been reported by Wim Rutten himself, a retired doctor (72 years old) from the Netherlands, who sails alone from his country towards Iceland. On Monday the 19th, on the 45th day of his trip, Rutten was sailing by motor from the Shetland Islands (Scotland, United Kingdom) to Bergen (Norway), taking advantage of the moment to fish for mackerel with a hook, when he was surprised by the presence of what in At first he thought it was a big dolphin.
After a few moments of tracking, Rutten verified that it was an orca that was following his boat by the stern.
Suddenly, Rutten felt the killer whale pounding on his sailboat’s rudder and hull. The pilot and only crew member remembered the news of orca attacks on sailboats in the Strait of Gibraltar and worried about his own ship’s safety but, finally, after the shock of the moment, he considered that it had not suffered any apparent damage and continued on its route with relative tranquillity.
Rutten has indicated that he warned of the facts for the knowledge of other sailors in the area, but did not receive any special response. “I made an announcement through the general VHF channel, but I think that nobody heard it or that nobody cared because I did not receive any response,” Rutten explained in statements published by the Volkskrant newspaper.
“She hit the stern and rudder several times,” says Rutten. “You just don’t expect that. Not here, at least,” says the experienced lone sailor, pleased with the strength of his aluminum-hulled sailboat.
“The most terrifying thing was hearing the animal’s breathing very hard,” Rutten explained in statements to The Guardian. The orca stayed behind the boat “looking for the keel, then disappeared, but came back at high speed, two or three times…and made a little loop.” of the fishing line”, indicates the pilot. The first details of this singular incident are being widely disseminated on social networks and the media in dozens of countries.
The blows to Wim Rutten’s boat are a “very special” event, researcher Jeroen Hoekendijk, from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Marine Research (Nioz), explained to Volkskrant. As far as is known, this is the first time an orca has ‘interacted’ with a sailboat off the coast of Norway, says Hoekendijk. The data known so far indicates that the incident in the North Sea is carried out by an orca from a “completely different population (than the one known as Gladis), which cannot have copied the behavior. Therefore, a separate investigation is required. That makes it more exciting,” says this expert from the Netherlands.
