A pod of orcas has run over a boat off the coast of Spain, damaging the rudder so badly that the two-man crew was stranded off Cape Finisterre, according to a statement from rescuers emailed to The New York Times – and given recent events, that's not too surprising.
Recently, there have been regular reports of interactions between orcas and boats, with over 600 such reports between 2020 and 2024. They have intercepted vessels off the coasts of Morocco, Spain and Portugal, typically engaging with smaller sailboats and paying particular attention to the oars.
The recent collision involving a boat called the Amidala did not result in a capsize, but previous attempts by orcas have. Orcas, also known as killer whales and velociraptors of the sea, can be serious when it comes to hunting. Some wonder if these “attacks” are a learned behavior that a whale passes on to the pod after having a bad experience with a vessel.
Now the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI) in Spain has put forward an alternative theory: Maybe they are in training. Orcas are powerful predators that can take on huge prey, including the Atlantic bluefin tuna, an absolute masterpiece of fish farming.
According to NOAA, these giants can grow up to 13 feet long and weigh 2,000 pounds. Their bodies are hydrodynamically shaped and their undersides are white. Do you know what else can be so long, designed to glide through the water, and often have a white belly? Boats.
Catching a bluefin tuna is no easy task, as this muscular fish can move through the water at speeds of up to 45 kilometers per hour and accelerate faster than a Porsche. Catching such an animal requires training, and we humans may have provided the perfect tuna bait.
Animals prepare for situations through play. If you've ever had a kitten, you've witnessed firsthand how they'll playfully run around and try to murder everything in sight, despite weighing about as much as a pineapple. Through all that jumping, grabbing, and rolling, cats learn the athletic skills they'll need later in life to take down prey, and the same is true for many animals.
“Killer whales interacting with ships may reflect playful behavior, a well-established trait of these highly intelligent mammals,” the BDRI article states. “Play provides marine mammals with opportunities to develop and refine both cognitive and physical skills.”
If whales don't learn to hunt, it can affect their chances of survival. To stay alive, orcas have developed all kinds of hunting methods for bluefin tuna, depending on the hunting area. These include working together in a herd, tiring the tuna, and even catching them in fisheries and with longlines that we humans leave lying around.
“During interactions with ships, killer whales have been documented to engage in a variety of actions, such as thrashing, physical lever movements, and biting of varying intensity,” the authors explain. “These behaviors could potentially serve as training for killer whales, with ships acting as play incentives, encouraging cooperative techniques, and preparing them for the pursuit of [Atlantic bluefin tuna]and facilitates the improvement of motor skills and ultimately simulates hunting techniques.”
The authors conclude that more research is needed to truly understand what motivates orcas to attack recreational vessels, but that doing so could help us better protect the endangered population, recreational vessels and the people on them.
The article was published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management.
