Orcas on the prowl: Surge in attacks alarms sailors in Europe

In May last year, the yacht "Levante" embarked from Norway with two sailors aboard. Just a few days ago, as the yacht was returning to its home port, it came under attack from a group of orcas.

Due to a forecast of bad weather, the sailors opted to alter their course and head towards the port of Lisbon. It was then that they noticed several dolphins accompanying them alongside the boat. Soon after, they spotted larger fins on the vessel's left side. "From the moment we noticed this to the first hit took two seconds," recounted one of the sailors to the Norwegian newspaper VG. Suddenly, they understood they were being attacked by a pod of orcas.

The orcas not only struck the boat, altering its course, but also began to bite it. They inflicted damage, including to the boat's rudder. The sailors immediately sent a "Mayday" signal and informed the port in Sesimbra of their perilous situation. They feared their boat might sink.

The commercial vessel NQ Rosa was the first to respond to their distress call. It positioned itself half a nautical mile from the damaged yacht to monitor the situation. After about two hours, a Portuguese rescue boat arrived on the scene and towed the damaged vessel to port.

Incidents of orcas attacking sailing boats were virtually unknown just a few years ago, but since 2020, there has been a significant increase in reports.

According to the latest report from the organization GT Orca Atlántica (GTOA), between 2020 and the end of August 2024, a total of 824 documented orca attacks on boats have been recorded in the Strait of Gibraltar, the western Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Portugal, the northern coasts of Spain, and the western coasts of France.

Scientists are puzzled by this behaviour because orcas inhabit all of the world's oceans, yet they only target sailing boats off the southwest coasts of Europe. Despite hundreds of such incidents, experts remain unsure why orcas exhibit this behaviour.

Source: vg.no