Free Republic

Ayacht navigating the Strait of Gibraltar recently sank after a pod of orcas launched a dramatic attack, marking the latest incident in a series of troubling encounters with these killer whales. Robert Powell, the British yachtsman affected, said that "these (orcas) were not playing" and described the attack as "well-organized and coordinated" in a social media post. Powell and two other occupants of the yacht, called Bonhomie William, had to be rescued by Spanish coastguards on Wednesday 24 after orcas disabled the vessel's steering and subjected it to severe buffeting. However, Volker Deecke, a professor of wildlife conservation at the...

A sailing vessel off Gibraltar has become the first this year to be sunk by orcas that have been targeting boats in the area since 2020. Crew members of the Alboran Cognac boat called rescue services for help around 9am on Sunday, saying that their ship had been damaged by orcas 14 miles from Cape Spartel, at the southern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, in Moroccan waters. The sailors said they had felt hits on the hull, before their rudder was damaged and they noticed a leak threatening to sink their 50ft boat, local outlet El Pais reports. They...

Team JAJO had some special –– and terrifying –– visitors while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar as part of the 2023 Ocean Race on Thursday. A group of orcas, otherwise known as killer whales, surrounded the Dutch crew’s yacht, first circling the boat and then ramming into it. “This was a scary moment,” Jelmer van Beek, Team JAJO skipper, said, according to the Associated Press. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.” Some of Team JAJO’s crew banged...

The sale of ivory from the tusks and teeth of five more species will be banned under government plans. The import, export and dealing of elephant ivory was banned in the UK last year. The animals that could join the list are killer whales, hippos, walruses, narwhals, and sperm whales. The creatures are hunted and killed for their ivory which is often used in decorative carvings. The government plans to extend the Ivory Act 2018 to include them. People found to be breaking the law can be given unlimited fines or be jailed for five years. Parliament must vote on...

Lead author Alison Towner inspects the carcass of a great white shark....Marine Dynamics/Dyer Island Conservation Trust/Hennie Otto =================================================== Frequent readers of CNET Science will remember Port and Starboard, the duo of killer whales from a story we published in June, which detailed research showing great white sharks were being hunted by the whales off the coast of South Africa. New aerial footage, released on Monday, shows one member of the murderous pair -- Starboard -- actually making a kill. The footage was released on YouTube as part of a new study, led by Alison Towner, published on Oct. 3 in...

Scientists believe that the damage to boats is being done by just a few juvenile males

At first, the crew "heard a strange noise and rushed to the top of the ship" thinking they may have hit a container The yearlong aggression of orca pods against boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal continues unabated. By October of last year, there were 33 bizarre "revenge" attacks by killer whales off the coast of Spain and Portugal and it seems they’re not done yet. A video taken by fishermen in the Straights of Gibralter on April 3 shows the men valiantly fighting off a pod of the angry sea mammals as they attack the boat and...

SCIENTISTS have been left confused by a series of incidents in which killer whales have hit sailing boats along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. In some cases, boats have been damaged and at least one crew member suffered bruising from the impact of the ramming.Two boats also lost parts of their rudders due to the impact of the attacks, according to reports. Incidents have been reported in several locations, including one just off A Coruña, on the northern coast of Spain, on Friday afternoon. Pete Green, managing director of Halcyon Yachts, told The Guardian a boat was being taken to...

The study monitored the movements of 165 great white sharks near Farallon island and documented four encounters between visiting orcas and resident sharksFor years, the great white shark has been believed to be the ocean’s most feared predator. But when five shark carcasses washed ashore on a beach in South Africa’s Western Cape province in 2017, livers chomped from their bodies, a new question loomed in marine researcher’s minds — could the predator be prey? Scientists examined the bite marks under the pectoral fins of the dead sharks and found that they matched only one other oceanic species — the...

This is the terrifying moment three killer whales circled a pair of Russian kayakers who had paddled half a mile out to sea. Two kayakers immediately stop paddling in the calm waters as they spot the huge orcas swimming towards them. The nail-biting 40-second saga took place off Cape Mramorniy, on Sakhalin, an island that is almost as big as Scotland.

When faced with a killer whale, it seems even Jaws might take pause for thought — as new research reveals great white sharks beat a hasty retreat if orcas are around. What happens when top-level predators meet on land is well documented, but little is known about similar interactions in our oceans. To find out, a US research team led from the Monterey Bay Aquarium searched for encounters between great whites — among the most ferocious of all sharks — and orcas (killer whales), in electronic tagging and observational data. In every case where the two predators came into contact,...

When a killer whale drowned and dismembered a trainer at a SeaWorld park in Florida in 2010, federal labor officials fined the park $12,000 and required protective measures — over the objection of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who predicted in a written opinion that the next step would be a ban on tackling in pro football.

An ability to learn through copying may explain why whales develop unique dialects. An orca, or killer whale, in France can vocalize several English words, suggesting the species is capable of mimicking human speech. The 14-year-old female, named Wikie, can say "hello," "one, two," "ah ha," "bye bye," and "Amy." "You cannot pick a word that is very complicated because then I think you are asking too much -- we wanted things that were short but were also distinctive," Josep Call, a professor in evolutionary origins of mind at the University of St. Andrews, told The Guardian. Call is the...

SeaWorld is in mourning Wednesday for the matriarch of the park's orca family. Kasatka -- a mother of four, grandmother of six and great grandmother of two -- died around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at SeaWorld San Diego's Orca Encounter facility following a lengthy treatment for a bacterial respiratory infection, officials said. "All of us at SeaWorld are deeply saddened by this loss, but thankful for the joy she has brought us and more than 125 million park guests," said a SeaWorld statement.

An eviscerated great white shark has washed up on a South African beach, the latest fearsome predator to fall victim to killer whales in that area. Last month, reports emerged that great white sharks were becoming prey for orcas off of South Africa’s coast.

In the Bering Sea, near the edge the continental shelf, fishermen are trying to escape a predator that seems to outwit them at every turn, stripping their fishing lines and lurking behind their vessels. The predators are pods of killer whales chasing down the halibut and black cod caught by longline fishermen. Fishermen say the whales are becoming a common sight — and problem — in recent years, as they've gone from an occasional pest to apparently targeting the fishermen's lines. Fishermen say they can harvest 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of halibut in a single day, only to harvest next...

A rare sighting in the animal kingdom continues to mesmerize marine biologists and whale watchers in the Monterey Bay. For the fourth day in a row, whale watchers on Sunday spotted an abnormally large pod of killer whales feasting on the carcasses of two gray whales, according to Nancy Black from Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Killer whales are famous for their violent attacks and relentless feeding practices, but to see this type of behavior and this amount of mammal-eating creatures just off the coast of Monterey is "pretty rare," Black said. "This won't happen everyday," she said. The first gray...

Jaws may have terrified you at the cinema, but the iconic great white would have been dwarfed by Carcharocles megalodon, the largest shark in the history of the planet. The giant creatures lived between 23 million and 2.6 million years ago and scientists are divided over how and why the species perished. Now, details of fossils from the huge shark that lived alongside the dinosaurs have been studied for the first time in an attempt to solve this mystery.

SeaWorld announced on Thursday it would ends its killer whale breeding program, and those currently at its parks would be the last. The Orlando-based theme park has faced dwindling attendance and years of criticism over its treatment of the captive marine mammals as well as pressure from animal rights activists to end public exhibition of killer whales altogether. SeaWorld, which operates parks in San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio, said in November it would replace its signature 'Shamu' killer whale shows in San Diego with displays focused on conservation.

The California Coastal Commission has banned SeaWorld from breeding captive killer whales in San Diego. The ban is one of the conditions SeaWorld must uphold as it doubles the size of the tanks used to hold the animals at the park. Animal rights activists praised Thursday's decision, which will see 11 orcas remain at the tourist attraction.