Posted on 09/14/2020 7:24:29 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
Reports of orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar have left sailors and scientists confused.
Just what is causing such unusually aggressive behaviour?
When nine killer whales surrounded the 46ft boat that Victoria Morris was crewing in Spain on the afternoon of 29 July, she was elated. The biology graduate taught sailing in New Zealand and is used to friendly orca encounters.
But the atmosphere quickly changed when they started ramming the hull, spinning the boat 180 degrees, disabling the autohelm and engine. The 23-year-old watched broken bits of the rudder float off, leaving the four-person crew without steering, drifting into the Gibraltar Straits shipping lane between Cape Trafalgar and the small town of Barbate.
The pod rammed the boat for more than an hour, during which time the crew were too busy getting the sails in, readying the life raft and radioing a mayday Orca attack! to feel fear.
The moment fear kicked in, Morris says, was when she went below deck to prepare a grab bag the stuff you take when abandoning ship. The noise was really scary. They were ramming the keel, there was this horrible echo, I thought they could capsize the boat. And this deafening noise as they communicated, whistling to each other. It was so loud that we had to shout. It felt, she says, totally orchestrated.
Very unusual orca behavior The crew waited a tense hour and a half for rescue perhaps understandably, the coastguard took time to comprehend. To say this is unusual is to massively understate it. By the time help arrived, the orcas were gone. The boat was towed to Barbate, where it was lifted to reveal the rudder missing its bottom third and outer layer, and teeth marks along the underside.
Rocío Espada works with the marine biology laboratory at the University of Seville and has observed this migratory population of orca in the Gibraltar Straits for years. She was astonished. For killer whales to take out a piece of a fibreglass rudder is crazy, she says. Ive seen these orcas grow from babies, I know their life stories, Ive never seen or heard of attacks.
Highly intelligent, social mammals, orcas are the largest of the dolphin family, and behave in a similar way. It is normal, she says, that orcas will follow close to the propeller. Even holding the rudder is not unheard of: Sometimes they will bite the rudder, get dragged behind as a game. But never with enough force to break it. This ramming, Espada says, indicates stress. The Straits is full of nets and long lines; perhaps a calf got caught.
But Morriss was only one of several encounters between late July and August. Six days earlier, Alfonso Gomez-Jordana Martin, a 31-year-old from Alicante, was crewing a delivery boat near Barbate for the same company, Reliance Yacht Management. They were proceeding under engine when a pod of four orcas brought their 40ft Beneteau to a halt.
He filmed them it looks more like excitement and curiosity than aggression but even this bumping damaged the rudder. And the force increased, he says, over 50 minutes. Once we were stopped, they came in faster: 10-15 knots, from a distance of about 25m, he remembers. The impact tipped the boat sideways.
The skippers report to the port authority said the force nearly dislocated the helmsmans shoulder and spun the whole yacht through 120 degrees.
At 11.30pm the previous night, 22 July, Beverly Harris, a retired nurse from Derbyshire, and her partner, Kevin Large, were motor-sailing their 50ft boat, Kailani, just off Barbate at eight knots, when they came to a sudden standstill. It was flat calm, pitch black.
They thought theyd hit a net. I scrambled for a torch and was like, Bloody hell, theyre orcas, says Harris. The couple checked their position and found the boat pointing the opposite way. They tried to correct several times, but the orcas kept spinning them back. I had this weird sensation, Harris says, like they were trying to lift the boat.
It lasted about 20 minutes, but felt longer. We thought, Weve sailed across the Atlantic, surely were not going to sink now! Their rudder was damaged but got them to La Línea. It was a long night. Kevin said I should get some sleep. I said, Are you joking? Im having a gin and tonic, recalls Harris.
While enjoying her drink, Harris could have spared a thought for Nick Giles, having a sleepless night alone after an almost identical encounter off Barbate just two and a half hours earlier. He was motor-sailing, and playing music when he heard a sudden bang like a sledgehammer.
The wheel was turning with incredible force as the vessel spun 180 degrees, dislodging the autohelm and steering cables. The boat lifted up half a foot and I was pushed by a second whale from behind, he says. While resetting the cables, the orca hit again, nearly chopping off my fingers in the mechanism. He was pushed around without steering for about 15 minutes before they left him.
So what is going on underwater? Sonar? army tests? If human activity is affecting the orcas behaviour, human activity must be regulated. Activities producing underwater noise should be reduced to a minimum.
Remember USA’s Up All Night?
I wonder if that woman read this story:
Trainer's horrific death as SeaWorld killer whale 'tore his organs and bit his body'
They were probably blaring rap music on deck.
Maybe they’re just assholes.
CC
Woman obviously does not know the Essex story- albeit sperm whale not Orca
Could’a been worse.
Could’a been turkey pot pies.
CC
HEY! You got an issue with pot pies?
I know the conventional wisdom is that orcas are not dangerous to humans but I’m not convinced. You’d never get me on one of those kayak tours that go into orca pods. I remember reading that the Inuit won’t kayak near orca. Maybe they aren’t hunting humans and just mistake kayaks for a seal but an exploratory bite from an orca is probably fatal. Orca are the apex predator and when we’re in their environment, we’re potential food.
Lol, I do now, thanks for reminding me. With todays’ cable/satellite/streaming sites there is just so many easy choices. I’m kind of nostalgic for the days when we were at the mercy of network channels and maybe just a few cable channels.
I’m guessing they’ve had some bad encounters with small boats and people...
I wonder if the activities of the “refugees” from Africa may have altered the Orca’s perception of humans...
There has not been a documented attack on humans by Orca until now.
Anyone remember a SEA HUNT episode (1957) with Lloyd Bridges in which a “Killer Whale” attacks divers? In that episode he says “the Killer whales should be wiped out!”
A caged Orca is completely different from a wild one, and a poor trainer is a dead trainer. Deservedly so, IMHO
That’s why we cut the cable. Went to online content and things like Roku.
Maybe theyre just assholes.
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I had an experience with dolphins back in the 70s that would support that.
We were all in a group in an enclosed pen. The water was cold, so I was just hanging out near the enclosure, where the water, for some reason, was warmer and encrusted with sponges.
The male dolphins were bumping the female human swimmers at the back of knee. If the women had been dolphins, that is where their sexual organs would have been.
Then, all the male dolphins began to swim around and around the female swimmers, creating a vortex,acting exactly like a group of predatory, adolescent, human males.
My husband and I exited the swim area and the keepers somehow managed to break up the dolphin males’ game. I never bought the ‘gentle, intelligent dolphin’ line again. They were just thugs.
IMO the Orca’s are trying to Warn the Crews of Danger ahead.
But I’m not a Sailor and didn’t stay at Holiday Inn last night...
Ive never thought they were dangerous. I grew up in southeast Alaska and as a 13 year old would often canoe on the ocean out of Kethikan where Orcas were pretty common. Then when I was in my 30s I solo circumnavigated the San Juan and Gulf Islands in Washington in a kayak. One morning I got out at daybreak, timing it to ride with the tidal currents. I was totally alone crossing from the southern tip of San Juan Island to Victoria when a pod of Orcas came by, did a large circle around me, then kept me company for about 45 minutes as I made the crossing before the went on their way. I appreciated the company.
Ive always thought that as mammals, they are smart enough to know what is their food. Its sharks that bite first and then decide whether its food.
The Robertson family. I recall the book "Survive the Savage Sea".
Its THEIR turf. Get used to it sailor
Those Banquet pot pies were foul. But they were only about 25 cents each, so we got them all too often. Maybe if they had actually had pot in them....
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