There have been numerous reports in the press of the shocking stories of Orcas attacking small vessels, so much so, that as far back as 2020 sailing vessels under 15 metres had to be prohibited for their own safety from sailing off the Galician coast. 

The crew of SY Wildlife had firsthand experience of this back in May 2023 when they were terrorized by a group of 3 Orcas for an hour and a half as they were making passage from Lanzarote to Palma de Mallorca. The first the crew knew about the attack was a loud thud on the hull which they assumed must have been from the hull hitting a submerged container. But as they looked over the side towards the stern they saw two pieces of red debris floating off into the distance,  which unfortunately for them turned out to be bits of their fibre glass rudders ……  and then they spotted the orcas circling under the boat.

The crew weren’t immediately panicked and as per protocol provided by Orcaiberica.org  they slowed the vessel, stopped the engine, turned off the auto pilot and left the rudder to track, hoping that the whales would soon enough get bored and go away.  But once the boat had been turned 360º the panic set in.

The captain called  Tarifa traffic control to explain their predicament.  They could see the whales pushing the rudders with their noses under the boat to such an extent that the connecting rod between the two rudders was broken and one of the rudders had been pushed to completely face the other way leaving boat un-steerable. 

Luckily for the crew they then had a small piece of luck as the Orcas through their prodding of the rudders managed to push the rudders back into the correct position and the boat was once again steerable. 

The crew started the engine and got under way eventually limping into Gibraltar. On arrival  the Harbour Master told them the nearly unbelievable news that there had been 57 attacks in the last 60 days – 3 of them on the same day as Wild life attack!

There are two main theories that have been put forward to explain this behaviour. The first being that one of the Orcas suffered from either being struck by a boat or entangled in fishing line and has then taught this attacking behaviour to younger whales as revenge for injuries sufferered. The second theory made recently in by Renaud de Stephanis a marine biologist undertaking research for the Spanish government into this behaviour and reported in the Daily Telegraph on 27 June suggests that the mammals were possibly playing and received a “massive adrenaline rush” from the attacks. 

Whatever the reason for this behaviour the consequences can be devastating and several boats have been lost. Luckily for SY Wildlife  Links Marine Services were able to rebuild in aluminium the two rudders using the existing rudder stock and were able to get the boat back up and running in a couple of weeks.