A killer whale that researchers have named Gladis the White has taught a group of orcas to attack boats in the area of Gibraltar and the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula. They have already hit three boats, sinking two of them, writes The Telegraph.
It sounds like a story out of Moby Dick, but in this case fact beats fiction. Researchers believe a female killer whale named Gladis the Great White may be seeking revenge on humans after being traumatized by a collision with a boat or caught in nets used in illegal fishing.
Her attacks are now copied by the other killer whales she comes into contact with, who have learned from Gladis to strike at vessels in the Mediterranean.
The behavior of this group of killer whales led by Gladis has worried researchers, who fear that the younger orcas will also learn how to sink boats.
On May 2nd, six of these top predators crashed into the hull of a Bavaria 46 sailing in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar near Tangier, Morocco.
The hour-long attack stunned those on board. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw them,” said Janet Morris, a business consultant. “It’s an experience I’ll never forget.”
A female that was clearly larger than the other orcas was circling the boat as if surveying the situation, according to Stephen Bidwell, a photographer who was also on board. “The experience left us in awe of nature and its power.”
The orcas eventually lost interest in the boat, but not before causing thousands of pounds worth of extensive damage that left the vessel in a poor state.
The attack in the Strait of Gibraltar, a vital shipping route for the Mediterranean Sea area, followed a similar incident in November last year near the coast of Portugal.
A vessel with a French crew sank in the port of Viana do Castelo after killer whales caused cracks that caused the boat to take on water.
A group of three killer whales attacked a third sailboat which sank after its rudder was pierced off the coast of Spain just two days after the incident in the Strait of Gibraltar.
The vessel’s captain, Werner Schaufelberger, said he saw two smaller killer whales mimicking the tactics of the larger orca.
“The small ones shook the rudder while the big one backed up and hit the vessel with full force from the side,” the captain told Yacht, a German publication.
The Spanish coast guard rescued the crew of the stricken vessel, but the vessel sank at the entrance to the port of Barbate after being towed ashore.
“It is the traumatized orca that initiated this physical contact behavior with the boat,” said Alfredo Lopez Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and representative of the Atlantic Orca Working Group.
This “critical moment of agony” caused Gladis to become aggressive toward boats, and the aggressive behavior is now being copied by other orcas, Fernandez told LiveScience.
But Lopez said Gladis is not acting out of revenge, but is a learned behavior “as a reaction and precaution” that other killer whales mimic.
Orcas are social animals and learn from each other. The behavior of killer whales could be territorial, defensive or playful, according to other theories that could explain the incidents.
The first reports of aggressive orca behavior off the Iberian coast appeared in 2020. In the autumn of that year, the authorities in Spain banned ships from leaving the port in the area of the country’s northwestern waters after 29 orca attacks were recorded .
Attacks became more frequent. The killer whales approach from behind and strike the rudder before losing interest by the time they manage to stop the boat.
Editor: Raul Nețoiu
