We’ve seen two different stories about Orcas interacting with boats lately. One, about an aggressive pod attack, came off the southern coast of Spain, and the other, a more refined interaction, came off Camano Island north of Seattle. You can see videos of both below.
In the first story, a pod of about 30 orca whales circled and attacked the hull of a sailboat for two hours as it neared the Strait of Gibraltar. The three British sailors on board said they were afraid the 25-foot-long orcas would sink the boat. In fact, they damaged the rudder to the point where it was useless. “If the boat had sunk we would have been in a life raft surrounded by killer whales,” one crewman told the Sun. “That would have been drastic.”
In the Pacific Northwest, a single orca shoved and spun a 17-foot boat with a family of three on board. The orca, later identified as a 17-year-old male, played with the boat for about ten minutes, rocking and pushing until he finally swam away.
“It’s a rare thing, but every now and then they get a little frisky,” Ralph Downs, an officer with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Go Skagit. “Sometimes the whales just decide to check us out and use us as toys.” See the videos here:
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/07/tense-moments-for-family-as-orca-pushes-and-spins-boat
