Orcas are attacking small boats in the waters around Spain and Morocco. The reason is not clear but let’s be honest: Humans have had it for a long timeD.
Most attacks, coordinated between several individual animals, cause only damage to boats and disrupt a nice ride around the Iberian peninsula. However, some encounters actually turn out to be very serious, according to Insiders:
“At first I thought we hit something. But then I quickly realized that it was the orcas attacking the ship,” Schaufelberger told the German publication. Sailboat.
“The attacks were brutal. There are two smaller orcas and one larger one. The two small ones shook the rudder while the older one continued to run and then rammed into the side of the ship,” he added.
The Spanish Coast Guard rescued Schaufelberger and the rest of the crew and towed the boat back to port, where it sank shortly before docking.
The scientists say this behavior may have been caused by a traumatized killer whale that taught the behavior to fellow panda fish. Alfredo López Fernandez at the University of Aveiro in Portugal thinks he has even narrowed down the individual responsible for the attacks:
López Fernandez suspects that an injured orcas may be the cause. Her name is White Gladis and according to LiveScience, she may have collided with a boat or caught a trap during illegal fishing. The incident changed something in Gladis.
López Fernandez told LiveScience: “The orcas that suffered the injury was the one that initiated the physical contact behavior with this boat.
So sad! I hope that the orca gets the mental health help it needs.
The researchers found more than 200 incidents in which 0rcas struck or touched the boat. It’s clear that not all of these encounters rise to the level of “offensive” but rather scary-sounding encounters. Orcas are extremely intelligent animals and even have their own form of culture Smithsonian. They often teach each other skills and even fashions, like this orca begins to balance a dead fish on the nose. The other whales joined because hey, she’s a taste expert.
No fatal attacks on humans have been reported in the wild, but orcas that are forced to live in cramped tanks and perform tricks have been known to lash out. A large male orcas named Tilikum dragged his trainer into his tank and severely injured her before drowning in 2010.
