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In September last year the behaviour of a group of Orcas, often referred to as “killer whales”, although they are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, attracted significant international attention after a series of vessels sailing in waters near to the Galician coastline, were attacked and the vessels disabled.

This summer there have been more than 50 reported interactions between killer whales (orcas) and sailing vessels off the coast of the Andalusia region, mainly off the Cádiz coastline, with the orcas causing physical damage to the boats.

On Thursday evening there was a further incident in which the boat required assistance after the rudder of the vessel was disabled.

Marine rescue services (Salvamento Marítimo) rescued the sailboat “Gardian”, with two crew on board, at 22.30 on the evening of Thursday August 12, which was towed into the Muelle Sagrado Corazón in Tarifa (Cádiz), arriving at 02:50 on Friday morning.

On Tuesday there were two similar incidents involving orcas.
In the first , marine rescue services rescued the four occupants of the “Eva” at one and a half nautical miles from the cabo Camarinal, near to Playa de Bolonia after the rudder of the vessel was disabled. The original encounter occurred eleven nautical miles from the coast, and although the occupants of the boat originally contacted the rescue services to inform them of an encounter, during which the boat was “bumped”, it was believed at the time that no damage had occurred. However, as they approached the coast, it became evident that the rudder had been damaged and in the end the occupants required the intervention of the emergency services.

In a second incident on the same day, another sailing vessel was towed into the port of Barbate after a similar encounter, during which the rudder was disabled.

On August 5 the Ministry of Transport, through the Maritime Captaincy of Cádiz, decided to restrict sailing for boats with a length of 15 metres or less between cabo de Trafalgar and Barbate, following three killer whale attacks on Wednesday, August 4.

 

These boats are only allowed to sail between 2 and 9 miles from the coast between cabo de Trafalgar and Barbate.

 

Between March 27 and August 4, there have been 56 separate reports of orcas interacting with small sailing boats.

 

In 25 of the 56 cases, Maritime Rescue Services had to  assist the boats, towing them back to shore, all with damaged steering.

 

As well as restricting the navigation area for smaller boats, the Ministry requested that sailing boats over 15-metres only use mechanical (motor) propulsion while they are in the restricted zone and that all boats and ships abstain from carrying out whale watching activities.

 

This order is currently in place until at least August 20, but given the latest spate of incidents, it is likely to be extended.

 

The Maritime Captaincy of Cádiz has also issued some advice for dealing with orca attacks: “if possible, turn off the engine, lower the sails, leave the rudder on the track and disconnect the probe” and “avoid going near the side of the boat”.

In other attacks last summer off the Galicaian coast, killer whales targeted the rudders of medium-sized boats and investigators concluded that all of the incidents related to a specific group of juveniles, one of which had substantial scarring that appeared to have been caused by some sort of impact contact, probably with the rudder of a vessel.

The presence of killer whales in the waters off the Spanish coast is nothing new; the Galicia coastline is renowned for its rich fishing grounds and marine life, shoals of migratory fish moving along its coast attracting hungry predators, a natural cycle which is repeated year after year, as shoals of tuna transit the Atlantic coast pursued by orcas.

Last summer there were various sightings of orcas, which can reach lengths of up to 8 metres and weigh as much as 6 tons, in the Mediterranean, and it was hypothesized that they may have been straying from their usual hunting grounds in and around the Strait of Gibraltar due to an increase in the number of bluefin tuna in the western Mediterranean.

Image: Archive. Marine Rescue Services.