Orcas have been swarming and attacking boats in the southwest tip of Europe. The behavior is being closely examined to determine if the animals are deliberately doing this and if the orcas are learning from each other.
Since 2020, the number of encounters between boats and orcas (killer whales) has increased, but no injuries or fatalities have been reported. The whales are not responsible for sinking the boats in most cases.
A scientist in Portugal said that the string of attacks since 2020 may indicate the whales’ intention to damage sailing vessels. Some are skeptical and say that, while the behavior is coordinated, it may not be coordinated aggression.
“I believe it is interpreted as aggression, because the damage it causes, but we cannot say that it’s aggressive in nature,” said Monika Weland Shields. She is the director of Orca Behavior Institute.
According to a report published in the Marine Mammal Science in June last year, at least 15 interactions between boats and orcas off the Iberian Coast were reported in 2020.
The National Maritime Authority of Portugal issued a statement in November 2020 alerting sailors to “curious behaviors” among juvenile killer Whales. The statement stated that the whales could be attracted by rudders or propellers, and might try to approach boats.
There has been a rise in alarm over the sinkings that followed.
Three orcas struck the rudder and side of a sailing yacht, causing it to sink. This was reported earlier this month in a German publication called Yacht. The German magazine Yacht reported that three orcas had struck the side and rudder of a sailing boat, eventually causing it sink.
Alfredo Lopez Fernandez is a biologist from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He suggested that a female orca was struck by a sailing vessel, which caused her to become aggressive. Lopez Fernandez who co-authored a study in Marine Mammal Science published on June 20, 2022, told Live Science other orcas could have picked up the behavior by social learning. Whales are known to display this behavior.
Shields stated that orcas were not known historically to be aggressive towards humans, even when being hunted down and kept in captivity.
She said, “They have certainly had reasons to behave in this way.” They’ve seen family members taken away from their group in the 1960s and 1970s, or they’ve been shot at by fisherman. If something was going motivate direct aggression, then I would have thought something like that.
Shields said that there were no instances where killer whales had shown what might be considered revenge behavior towards humans.
She believes that the recent attacks against boats are more likely to be a result of “fad behavior”, which is characterized by a whale’s novel, but temporary behavior. Other whales can mimic this behavior.
She said that the behavior spreads throughout a population, sometimes for weeks, months or even years. But in many cases, it disappears.
Shields, along with her colleagues, observed that Southern Resident killers began carrying salmon carcasses on their heads, but the behavior abruptly stopped.
Shields stated that the behavior of orcas near the Iberian Coast may also be temporary.
This feels the same as when one whale was playing with a rudder, and said, “Hey, that’s a fun thing to do.” “Do you want to give it a try?” And it is the latest craze for this population of orcas,” said she.
Shields said that while she did not dismiss trauma response theory as a whole, it would be hard to confirm the theory without more direct evidence.
She said, “We know that their brains are wired for complex emotions. I believe they can be capable of anger or revenge.” It’s not something we’ve ever seen before, and they’ve had plenty of chances to avenge us on the other side of the globe. “They just chose not to.”
