Orca Attack Leaves Yacht Heading for Rock Collision

Yet another sailing yacht has been "attacked" by orcas off the coast of Spain after a spate of similar incidents that have become dramatically more frequent over the last few months.

The most-recent incident took place off the coast of Estepona on July 21. The boat, the Kapote Tercero, was intercepted on its way to the Copa del Rey regatta, according to the organisers of the event.

"The orcas have attacked again tonight, this time already inside the Mediterranean at the height of Estepona," the organizers of the Copa del Rey regatta, Copa del Rey MAPFRE, wrote in a post on Twitter. "The crew [...] are safe and without personal injury."

Footage taken by the crew shows the ship's rudder in tatters as it was pulled out from the water.

"We felt a very strong hit and the rudder started to turn. The boat heeled completely," crew member Santi Villagrans can be heard saying in the footage shared by Copa del Rey MAPFRE. "When I looked at the back, I saw them just like three years ago, with their white belly up, the rudder swinging from side to side.

"We lowered gears, furl the sails, go in reverse because supposedly that's what you're supposed to do," Villagrans added. "There were 3 or 4 killer whales. Two were observing, and the other two were acting. They came and went."

Due to the damage, the crew members were unable to steer, and the yacht was towed to the nearest marina. "Right as we were entering the harbor, at night, we had to call for rescue because we were heading towards the rocks," Villagrans said.

The conservation group GT Orca Iberica says there have been hundreds of similar interactions since early 2020. Exactly why the orcas are targeting ships is unclear, but researchers have several theories.

One is that a single, revenge-bent female has taught the others to attack ships after being injured by one in the past. However, not everyone is convinced by this theory.

"They could crush the boat in a heartbeat if they wanted to," Sébastien Destremau, a captain who was involved in a similar attack on May 22, previously told Newsweek. "But they were not aggressive. They're not wanting to have a piece of you."

Instead, Destremau believes the orcas might be using our boats to teach their young how to hunt. "If I was a parent orca, I'm not going to touch my living stock, because my living stock is low, so why not train them on our boats?" Destremau said. "For them, the rudder looks like a fin! [It] moves like a fin, and you can play and push and grab it. And, as soon as the rudder is destroyed, they disappear."

This theory does seem to be consistent with the experiences of other sailors. The orcas are rarely said to be acting aggressively toward the ship and instead appear to be almost playful. Secondly, almost invariably, they attack the ship's rudder and nothing else.

Unfortunately, stories about mother orcas taking their young out for a hunting lesson do not spread as quickly as fear over predatory revenge. Many sailors are now arming themselves with guns and other weapons to defend their ships.

"It's important to get a different message across," Destremau said.