Why are killer whales attacking boats?

BBC Discover Wildlife ^ | 23/10/23 | Mark Carwadine

[Eleutheria5]

.....

If you were to believe the press and social media, we’re in the midst of a ‘killer whale uprising’. But claims about their murderous intent are blatantly untrue. The evidence doesn’t stand up. Killer whales do attack, and sometimes kill, trainers in captivity (not surprisingly) but, unlike polar bears, great white sharks and many other top predators, they have never killed a person in the wild.

How many attacks have taken place? So what’s happening? Since May 2020, there have been more than 500 reported attacks on sailing boats, as well as some fishing boats, RIBs and motorboats. It began in the Strait of Gibraltar, but the number and range of incidents has rapidly increased in the years since.

The ‘attack zone’ now extends up the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and France; and, in June, a yacht was ambushed off the coast of Shetland (the first incident recorded in northern waters). No-one has been harmed. The culprits are just a handful of whales, although others may be learning the behaviour.

Are the attacks triggered by a traumatic incident such as a collision with a boat or entanglement in fishing gear, as many claim? Or is it really an act of revenge for centuries of maltreatment and neglect? ...

.....

A key piece of evidence is that they usually attack the boat rudders. Research with dummy rudders suggests that they are pushing them, rather than biting. Once a rudder breaks, the whales usually swim away. That doesn’t sound like aggression to me. If they really wanted to, they could sink a small yacht in minutes. (Breaking a rudder could open a hole in the hull, of course, which might explain why three of the 500-plus boats sank.)

.....

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TOPICS: Humor; Pets/Animals; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: boatattacks; europe; killerwhale; killerwhales; ocean; orca; orcas; whales; wildlife

[Eleutheria5]

Willy got freed and wrote a tell-all whale-catterwauller that became a best seller. Now they're all p!ssed.

But they're mostly peaceful killer whales, who just want to mess with yacht rudders.

[mairdie]

We really need to train AI to speak whale.

[Scarlett156]

“We damaged your boat and then just swam away because there might be some easier food down-current. But if there isn’t, we’ll be back!”

[Carry_Okie]

Why are killer whales attacking boats?

They've found out that it's fun. as is not unusual in predator behavior.

[BipolarBob]

Its a mostly peaceful protest.

[Eleutheria5]

“Or is it really an act of revenge for centuries of maltreatment and neglect?”

LOL. OLM. Orcan Lives Matter!

[jimtorr]

The initial reports had it that the individuals harassing boats were juveniles, and it was just playtime for them. Given that they only mess with the rudders of boats and then swim away, I’d say that was the most likely explanation.

I saw Willy in his home in the aquarium in Newport, Oregon, and followed any reports of his life in the wild. In Newport, he liked to watch television, action movies being his favorite. In the wild, in the Norwegian fjiords, he sought out people and appeared to enjoy human contact. Sadly, he apparently never gained acceptance from any Orca pod. Maybe they thought him too much a weirdo.

All of this attests to the intelligence of whales in general, and Orcas in particular.

[rlmorel]

LOL!

ORCA 1: Check this out! (Swims directly at a sailboat, then turns to sideswipe the boat and breaks the rudder off)

ORCA 2: Ahhhahahahahahaha! Did you see them run around like seals with their heads bitten off? They looked like their hair was on fire and their asses were catching!

ORCA 3: Do it again! Do it again!

ORCA 4: Okay, let's cool it here. Do you want humans to begin coming at us with harpoons they way they do with the Minke Whales? They leave us alone because we don't offer them any good commercial reason to hunt us, and we don't eat them, even though we could, as bad as they taste.

ORCA 2: You're right. Let's go.

[SunkenCiv]

Gotta be either climate change, or seaborne plastic refuse, or election denialism, or white supremacy, or white male privilege, or Donald Trump (or maybe just his ballroom).

• Killer Whales Sink Yacht Off Coast of Lisbon -- Gonna Need a Bigger Boat! [09/20/2025]
• BEWARE OF THE KILLER WHALES: A Pod of Orcas Ram and Sink Small Yacht off the Coast of Portugal (VIDEO) [09/18/2025]
• Orcas Sink Another Yacht: Why Killer Whales Are Attacking Boats [08/02/2024]
• Killer whales sink $128K yacht in 'terrifying' 2-hour Mediterranean Sea attack: 'Like watching wolves hunt' [07/28/2024]
• Gladis the killer whale strikes again! Sailing vessel off Gibraltar becomes the first this year to be sunk by orcas that have been targeting boats in the area since 2020 [05/15/2024]
• Watch as Killer Whales Attack Dutch Yacht in 'Scary' Race Incident [06/23/2023]
• Orcas Have Sunk 3 Boats in Europe and Appear to Be Teaching Others to Do the Same. But Why? [05/18/2023]
• Killer whales attack fishing boat near Spain [04/13/2021]
• Raging killer whales are launching terrifying 'orchestrated' attacks on boats injuring sailors -- and no one knows why [09/19/2020]
• Why do orcas start attacking boats? Scientists and sailors left baffled [09/14/2020]
• Terrifying moment kayakers freeze in fear after being circled by three killer whales while paddling half a mile out to sea [05/17/2020]
• Pics of Orca playing in the wake of yacht [09/18/2012]
• LOL: ORCAS ARE FRIENDLY CREATURES WHO LOVE PEOPLE [04/09/2012]

[Buttons12]

Juvenile delinquency on the rise among cetaceans. Maybe an inky cloud would discourage them, as it does with porch pirates.
I’m all for trying to understand them, but...we ought to make them understand us too. Just saying.

[FreedomPoster]

That’s a really interesting idea.

[chief lee runamok]

Given that sound travels through water, perhaps the attacked
vessels were playing music offensive to the orcas involved.
      

[kawhill]

Orcas going to orca.

[Labyrinthos]

Why are killer whales attacking boats?

For the same reason dogs lick their balls -- because they can.

[9YearLurker]

Because we deserve it?

[Varda]

I think the author gets it right in the end. They're having fun. There was another article about the attacks that studied which whales were doing it.
Yup, juvenile males. Yutes come in all species.

[Eleutheria5]

Michael Jackson’s really bizzarre solo from the intro to Free Willy, where he was pretending to be a frustrated whale or something. That really bunches their dorsal fins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQY_QL_wvQU&list=RDjQY_QL_wvQU&start_radio=1

[rlmorel]

I posted this the other day regarding dolphin research...this looks like it was filmed back in the Seventies, so it was old, one can only imagine what they are doing with AI now to research this...(I would like to see what they do with crows!):

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Scientists decode secret language of non-human intelligence beneath Earth's oceans

A Freeper recently recommended a documentary "The Discoverers", and when when I watched it, they had a segment in it on dolphin research that really caught my eye. This is the transcript from this section of the documentary:

NARRATOR: We believe that we've provided the first convincing evidence that an animal exposed to language can understand not only what words mean but how word order changes that meaning. Dolphins can link words together. A key to intelligent thought.


DOLPHIN TRAINER: (speaking to dolphin “Akeakami” sticking its head out of the water) Yeah. Good girl.

HEAD RESEARCHER: Okay, you can play with them a bit and then we'll start the session

DOLPHIN TRAINER: Good girl! Right up! Yes! That's beautiful! Beautiful!

HEAD RESEARCHER: Okay, ready for the next sentence. We cover the dolphin trainer’s eyes so she can't give unintended messages through eye contact.


DOLPHIN: (chittering, awaiting command)

HEAD RESEARCHER: If we give the dolphin Akeakami the sequence of gestures meaning "surfboard." "person," "fetch," she understands that, she is to find the person in the tank and carry that person to the surfboard, and not the surfboard to the person.

DOLPHIN TRAINER: (giving hand signals to dolphin) Surfboard, person, fetch.

HEAD RESEARCHER: Word order makes a difference. (whistle blows)

DOLPHIN: (chittering, nods immediately to indicate it understands, and swims swiftly over to a swimmer in the water, puts her head under the swimmer, and brings her to the surfboard on the other side of the tank)


DOLPHIN TRAINER: Yay! Well done! Good girl!

DOLPHIN: (chittering)

DOLPHIN TRAINER: Good girl, good girl.

HEAD RESEARCHER: These dolphins are not just performing tricks like circus animals.

DOLPHIN TRAINER: Very good. - Get up! Up, up, up!

HEAD RESEARCHER: They were able to follow a completely new, unfamiliar instruction because they understand the language. Once we discovered this ability we asked ourselves whether dolphins could comprehend even more abstract forms of communication.

DOLPHIN: (chittering)

NARRATOR: Could a dolphin understand gestures given through TV images? Not a live trainer at tankside... But a flat, flickering image of a trainer, 12 inches high? (television showing video of trainer with hand signals telling the dolphin “Perform ‘Spiral Jump”)


DOLPHIN: (chitters to acknowledge it understands as it nods its head, then immediately swims to the surface, leaps out of the water, twisting in a spiral)

HEAD RESEARCHER: There she goes. She did it. Very good. That's correct. TRAINER: (using hand signals to dolphin) Spiral jump completed - Good girl. - Okay. That is correct. Right. Prepare for the next sentence

HEAD RESEARCHER: Send her back to station. (Trainer gives hand signal to go to station)

DOLPHIN: (chittering and nods in acknowledgement, then swims to the station where it can see the television screen underwater)


HEAD RESEARCHER: We then wondered how abstract this image could be and still be understood. We tried showing only two spheres moving about in black space, tracing out gestures as the trainer's arms and hands normally would.


TRAINER: Signal attention (to dolphin).
DOLPHIN: (chittering, then stops and stares at the video screen and awaits the command from the trainer)


TRAINER: (signaling “Hoop through” with the two spheres on the video screen which mimic the movement of her hands) Ready. Yes!

DOLPHIN: (chittering, nods in understanding, swims to the bottom of the tank and gets the hoop off the floor of the tank, stands it on end, and swims through it)

TRAINER: There you go. Good girl!

NARRATOR: To truly understand these wonderful creatures, it's not enough to teach them our idea of language we must also learn theirs. To learn how they communicate in their own world.

---

What really impressed me about this (as opposed to watching a gorilla like Koko respond to signs, which was slow and deliberate, or like Alex the gray parrot, who seemed like a bird doing tricks even though it wasn't) was the "dialogue" that seemed bilateral and instantaneous.

As soon as the trainer gave a command, the dolphin would chitter, not its head in understanding (it was unequivocally communicating "Okay, I understand!" and then it swam right off and unerringly performed the command. It was very interesting.

I saw a US Navy unit with a dolphin in Boston Harbor some years ago...and this documentary is old, so none of this is new. But to see it was very interesting.

[rlmorel]

Hahaha...”disco”!

[Eleutheria5]

Elderly whale: GET OFF MY SEAWEED, YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!