Source: Washington Post
“A spate of encounters between orcas and boats off the Iberian coast has puzzled scientists and sailors recently, as seemingly coordinated ambushes by the killer whales led to the sinking of three vessels. The reason for the attacks, according to one scientist who has studied the phenomenon, may be revenge. The leading theory is that a female orca suffered a traumatic incident with a boat (a ‘critical moment of agony’) that caused her to start attacking the vessels, Alfredo Loópez Fernandez, a marine biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, told the industry publication Live Science. The majority of the ‘disruptive’ interactions between orcas and boats off the Iberian Peninsula in the past few years (Lopez Fernandez said they numbered in the hundreds) have been brief and caused minimal physical damage to the vessels, according to a report co-written by Lopez Fernandez and published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.” (05/21/23)