A group of orcas sank a charter boat in the Strait of Gibraltar in a 45-minute attack last week. All the passengers and crew on the boat, a 45-foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey sailboat, were rescued before it sank off the coast of Morocco. This was the fourth time in two years that orcas have sunk a boat in the area.
A pod of orcas, or killer whales, “hit the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing major damage and leakage,” Morskie Mile, a Polish tourist agency that operates the boat, posted on Facebook. The boat, named Grazie Mamma, was westbound in the Strait at the time.
The attack started about noon, and the Moroccan Navy and tug boats tried to help the boat and tow it to safety. Several boats picked up the crew and passengers after they abandoned ship. No one was injured.
Orca attacks in the Gibraltar area and off the coast of Spain and Portugal have quadrupled in the past few years. GTOA, a research organization, recorded 52 attacks between the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia in northwestern Spain from July to November in 2020. There were 197 attacks in 2021, and 207 in 2022.
Scientists do not really know yet why the orcas attack. Most of the attacks involved sailboats under 50 feet, with small props and large rudders. One theory is that the orcas enjoy slamming into the rudders to watch the boats spin around; another is that an orca was injured by such a boat in the past and that others are taking revenge.
Either way, orcas are getting smarter, researchers say, and seem to be coordinating their attacks and inflicting more damage. But there is not a documented case of a human being dying from an orca attack.
