The mystifying attacks on sailboats by a pod of Iberian orcas continue.
The crew of the British yacht Bonhomme William had to be rescued after an orca sank their vessel in the Strait of Gibraltar, according to Spanish authorities. It is the latest in a long-running series of “interactions” between orcas and midsize sailing yachts off the coast of Spain.
Maritime Executive reports that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at Tarifa received a distress call from the yacht Bonhomme William on Wednesday night. The crew reported that their vessel had been disabled by orcas, which had hit it several times, and was adrift about two miles off Punta Camarinal in the strait’s western entrance.
The rescue vessel Salvamar Enif got under way for the scene, and as it transited to rendezvous with the stricken Bonhomme William, the yacht’s crew radioed to report that the orcas continued to strike the disabled vessel. The pod of assertive killer whales caused so much damage that the yacht began taking on water, and it was clear that it was in danger of sinking. The crew deployed their life raft as a precautionary measure while they awaited rescue.
Salvamar Enif‘s crew arrived on scene, rescued the three sailors and retrieved some of the hazardous materials aboard the yacht. The responders safely rescued all three crewmembers from the inking sailing vessel and delivered them to shore in Cadiz.
Orca attacks have not been limited to the Strait of Gibraltar and the Iberian peninsula. Live Science reported that two young orcas recently rammed a sailboat off the coast of Brittany — a whopping 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) north from the Strait of Gibraltar, where the majority of orca attacks on boats have occurred.
The incident occurred July 16 off the coast of Guilvinec, a commune 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Brest in Brittany in northwestern France. The couple on board lost control of their boat — a 40-foot-long (12 meters) wooden pleasure craft — after two young orcas (Orcinus orca) broke the rudder, local newspaper Le Télégramme reported.
The couple alerted the local coastguard, who towed the sailboat safely back to harbor in Guilvinec.
The incident is one of nearly 700 physical interactions between orcas and boats recorded since July 2020 along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe and North Africa. Roughly half of those interactions caused mild to serious damage to the boats, according to a translated report published earlier this year in the journal Ingeniería Civil.
Research and observations have linked these interactions to a population of about 35 Iberian orcas. that have been targeting yachts regularly since about 2020. These killer whales are specific in their preferences: According to researchers, the orcas always target sailing yachts measuring less than 15 meters long, usually while under way. They appear to be indifferent to the crew. (There has never been a recorded fatal orca attack in the wild – a reassuring fact, since they are among the ocean’s most capable predators.)