Last September, the Spanish government issued restrictions on operating sailboats less than 15 meters long off a section of its Galician coast after multiple cases of encounters with pods of orcas, also known as killer whales. Last week, Spain issued new restrictions on the navigation of sailboats of less than 15 meters in a less than 10 nautical mile stretch of coastline, south of Cadiz, between Cape Trafalgar and Barbate. The restricted area extends from 2 to 9 miles from the coast. The restrictions are for two weeks but may be modified depending on the circumstances.

The orcas bump the boats’ hulls, often damaging the rudder and in some cases biting the boat’s keel in what has been described as violent but fundamentally playful behavior.

Since March 27, when the orca encounters reoccurred, there have been 56 reported attacks on sailboats by orcas. In at least 25 cases, damage done by the orcas was severe enough to require Spanish Marine Rescue to tow the boats to a safe harbor. So far, there are no reports that anyone has been killed or seriously injured in the encounters.

If faced with a pod of aggressive orcas, the Spanish authorities recommend shutting down the engine, lowering sails, disconnecting the autopilot, and keeping crew away from the rails.

Below is a short video of a sailboat damaged by an orca encounter off Spain. Remarkably despite major damage to the rudder, they were able to reach port without assistance.

Orcas (killer whales) destroy the rudder of a yacht on delivery off the Coast of Spain