Scientists are trying to explain the “revenge of orcas”, which are attacking more and more boats

orca GladysUmm Ashira became a slogan for something that puzzled the authorities and scholars: These animals attacks against sailboats For three years, especially in Spanish waters.

“They attacked the radar directly: they didn’t circle the ship, they didn’t play, nothing… They rammed the radar at full speed“, He says France Press agency German Friedrich Sommerdescribing the damage orcas caused to his schooner “Muffet”.

Sommer is waiting in Barbate (southern province of Cádiz) to repair his boat, like another foreign owner, who asked not to be identified, whose boat lost its rudder in a similar attack.

“He’s completely lost the rudder.” And “they caused structural damage to a structure,” he explains Raphael PecciIn charge of the shipyards pointing out the damage to the schooner.

On the main beach of Barbati, the masts of sunken sailboats protrude at the beginning of May due to the attack of some orcas, a silent testament to the seriousness of these episodes.

The attacks or “interactions” – a term used by environmentalists and authorities – began in 2020 and occurred along the entire Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, but particularly between Cadiz and Tangiers near Morocco Strait of Gibraltar.

This is explained by the large presence in the area of ​​one of the favorite prey of orcas, the Bluefin tunawhich cross the strait in spring from the Atlantic Ocean to spawn in the Mediterranean Sea.

According to the Spanish Maritime Rescue Organization Marine rescuein the year 2023 there was 28 “Interactions” between boats and orcasand in the period 2020-2022 it was up to approx 500estimated Alfredo Lopezof the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), at a conference on the subject held in March in Portugal.

“Not much is known about the causes of these interactions,” L. explained France Press agency Jose Luis Garcia Varasresponsible for the ocean programme WWF Spain.

And in this fertile land of legends, he represents a figure Gladysa clan lord, to whom many attacks were attributed and who would pass on her experience to her young.

Orcas “are familiar, they are in groups, they are very intelligent and they have an element of verbal transmission of knowledge,” recalls García Varas.

President of the environmental organization Agrupcion Voluntarios de Trafalgar, Maria Dolores Iglesiasbelieves that Gladys is dead and she and her grandchildren are stricken with resentment.

Iglesias asserts that there is an “orca who is Gladys’ granddaughter”, whose attacks are seen “anger”

“I definitely think orcas Capable of complex feelings such as revengeit states Monica Weiland Shieldsdirector of the Orca Behavior Institute, according to NPR. “I don’t think we can completely rule that out.”

However, Shields does not endorse the hypothesis “revenge” Still. He says that despite the fact that humans “provided many opportunities for orcas to respond aggressively to us,” there are no other examples of them doing so, according to him. NPR.

GTOA has on its website the “Gladis” family tree, which are 15 related and identified orcas that have interacted with the ships, the famous mother being Gladys LaMarre.

Reno De Stefanisa doctor of marine sciences and head of Circe (conservation, information and study on cetaceans), is going to set sail for the Orcas satellite marker, which is what will allow authorities to locate them to “minimize interaction with boats,” according to the Ministry of Environment and Transmission.

They “work with several hypotheses” to explain the interactions, de Stefanis says, from those who assert they are “games” to those who attribute their actions to “animadversion”. But for now, “we can’t give a final result.”

Not all encounters with these cetaceans, which can reach a length of 9 meters in the case of males, 7 meters in the case of females, and a weight of between 3.5 and 6 tons, end in damage to sailboats, but when they do occur, they are usually on vital parts of the ship. , such as rudder or radar.

“It’s very scary.”Britons wrote April Boys on her Instagram account (@april_georgina) about her encounter with a group of these cetaceans.

“They started knocking on the rudder continuously for more than an hour, and after a general call [que indica una urgencia] that turned into mays [peligro para el barco o la vida]He added in a story accompanied by a video showing the crew running out of water to prevent it from sinking.

(With information from AFP)

Read on: