The headlines certainly make a splash. “Killer whale is TEACHING other orcas to attack yachts,” screamed one. “Revenge, or just a coincidence? Orca ‘supervising’ other killer whales to sink yachts off Gibraltar,” trembled another. And the photographs – and video footage – in the news articles are dramatic enough to match.
Taken from the deck of a 44ft yacht sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar earlier this month, they clearly show a group of orcas interacting with the boat, and according to those on board, slamming into the hull, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
“It’s an experience I will never forget,” said Stephen Bidwell, a 58-year-old photographer from Cambridge, who was on board the yacht with his partner, Janet Morris. “[It] left us in awe of nature and her power.”
What has left others awestruck – and provoked global intrigue this week – was the remarkable fact the orcas had previous. One of the group was identified as ‘White Gladis’ – an adult female well known on the Galician coastline as part of a 39-strong community regularly spotted by vessels in the area. Since 2020, there have been hundreds of incidents involving these particular orcas seemingly deliberately hitting boats, behaviour that has puzzled and divided experts. Almost all of those encounters have been innocuous, and none has resulted in any human injuries, but a small handful of boats have sunk.
So are orcas as evil as they seem? “It’s alarming behaviour if you’re skippering one of these sailing boats,” says Rob Lott, a campaigner and expert for wildlife charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation. He is on the line to address fevered speculation – some of it stemming from comments made by whale-watchers on the continent – that Gladis is hellbent on revenge after being injured by a boat or fishing nets in the past.
It is true that she suffered an injury once, but Lott, and most other orca experts around the world, are dismissive of the conspiracy theory. Words like “vengeance”, “supervision”, “spate of attacks” and “continuing the war on humans” are, he says, unhelpful and unnecessarily anthropomorphic.
“I’m very careful not to demonise these orcas, I don’t think it’s anything to do with ‘revenge’ or ‘attacking’. It seems to be quite small sailboats – on average about 12 metres long or so – and they’re interacting with the rudders,” Lott says.
“The orca usually approaches from the stern, and then quite often bites or snaps off the rudder. And the youngsters have observed some of the older ones doing this, so it’s a form of imitation. Ridiculous as it sounds to say, this is probably a ‘play’ behaviour, rather than anything to do with aggression.”
Orcas are, he says, “super smart, and incredibly socially and behaviourally complex”, and they’re well known for developing very particular play or hunting techniques, which are then taught to their fast-learning young. Orcas in the Southern Atlantic, for instance, deliberately beach themselves in order to hunt for seals, then wait for the waves to rescue them.
And in 2021, off Iceland, a ship’s crew witnessed a female orca looking after a newborn long-finned pilot whale, provoking unfounded theories that she may have adopted an orphan after failing to have her own young.
In the Strait of Gibraltar, the hope is that the community – which not only contains White Gladis, but also Grey Gladis and Black Gladis, all adult females named for the different colourations – are simply going through a phase, albeit a particularly annoying one for skippers of sailing yachts.
“There was talk from researchers about this and it’s something that I subscribe to – that this is probably just a fad, which they’ll hopefully grow out of,” Lott says.
“They’re obviously finding it worthwhile, even though it poses a risk to themselves. They’ll see a fast-moving vessel, try to stop it, and then when they’ve brought it to a halt, they lose interest. And it’s mainly sailboats so there’s obviously something about the rudder they find attractive.”
The reputation of orcas is not helped by their other name, killer whales, which you won’t hear experts utter. Orcas gained the sobriquet in the 18th century, when whalers called them “whale-killers” (over time, that was switched around), as they noticed some communities could take down even the largest cetacean species, blue whales.
That ability – plus their diet, which can include fish – made them competitors, in the eyes of some whalers and fisheries. As a result, they’ve been persecuted and hunted for centuries, including being randomly shot at by whaling boats.
“Part of the reputation comes from the fact they’re absolutely apex predators, so people may think they don’t really know any fear,” Lott says. That includes not fearing humans, but if they weren’t moved to conduct hit jobs on people who fired guns and harpoons at them, they’re unlikely to be conducting co-ordinated ambushes on boat-shoe wearing British sunseekers off Tangiers.
“When people talk about ‘revenge’ attacks on humans, that doesn’t stack up, because we’ve given them every opportunity to seek revenge before through persecution from hunts, shooting and capture for public display, and there’s never once been a reported attack on humans. That’s only happened when we’ve put them in tanks in captivity.”
Next week, Lott will join experts and enthusiastic volunteers in Scotland and the Northern Isles for Orca Watch, an annual survey of the orcas in our waters. One group, the West Coast community, has circulated mainland Britain for decades, and was once eight-strong but is now down to just two males, Aquarius, and the 60-something John Coe, who’s thought to be one of the oldest male orcas in the world.
The last female in that community, Lulu, died in 2016, after an entanglement with fishing nets. Other orcas have been opened up at post-mortem to reveal masses of plastic in their stomachs. And this is what Lott would rather we focus on, rather than letting headlines about one group’s behaviour stoke fear.
“It’s baffling behaviour, but they’ve obviously just found something appealing about it. As I say, I’m worried about demonising them. We should stress that these are critically endangered creatures, and if these incidents continue, it’s only going to harm conservation efforts. It’s alarming for all parties involved.”
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