Orcas, also called killer whales, are attacking boats, and young calves are learning to do the same, Live Science reported.
“The orcas are doing this on purpose, of course, we don’t know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day,” Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and representative of the Atlantic Orca Working Group told the outlet.
López Fernandez was referencing a worrisome run of attacks on boats in the Strait of Gibraltar. In one attack May 4, off the coast of Spain, a group of three orcas repeatedly rammed a craft and took aim at the rudder.
“The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side,” skipper Werner Schaufelberger told Yacht, a German publication, as reported by Live Science.
Schaufelberger and his crew were rescued by members of the Spanish coast guard, but the boat sank at the entrance to the port.
Just two days before the attack on Schaufelberger’s yacht, experienced sailor Greg Blackburn from Leeds in the United Kingdom tangled with six of the apex predators, Australia’s 9 News…
