Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same

[Infolurker]

I think I saw this movie, only now it isn't a movie. Orcas attacking sailboats is becoming "a thing".... Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water.



Scientists think a traumatized orca initiated the assault on boats after a "critical moment of agony" and that the behavior is spreading among the population through social learning.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/orca...me-but-why

Orcas have attacked and sunk a third boat off the Iberian coast of Europe, and experts now believe the behavior is being copied by the rest of the population.


Three orcas ([i]Orcinus orca[/i]), also known as killer whales, struck the yacht on the night of May 4 in the Strait of Gibraltar, off the coast of Spain, and pierced the rudder. "There were two smaller and one larger orca," skipper Werner Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht. "The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side." 

Schaufelberger said he saw the smaller orcas imitate the larger one. "The two little orcas observed the bigger one's technique and, with a slight run-up, they too slammed into the boat." Spanish coast guards rescued the crew and towed the boat to Barbate, but it sank at the port entrance.

Two days earlier, a pod of six orcas assailed another sailboat navigating the strait. Greg Blackburn, who was aboard the vessel, looked on as a mother orca appeared to teach her calf how to charge into the rudder. "It was definitely some form of education, teaching going on," Blackburn told 9news.

Reports of aggressive encounters with orcas off the Iberian coast began in May 2020 and are becoming more frequent, according to a study published June 2022 in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Assaults seem to be mainly directed at sailing boats and follow a clear pattern, with orcas approaching from the stern to strike the rudder, then losing interest once they have successfully stopped the boat.

[VioletDove]

That article made me think of this 




The animal conspiracy may be real  

[EndtheMadnessNow]

I think I saw this movie, only now it isn't a movie. Orcas attacking sailboats is becoming "a thing".... Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water.

LOL, I had just posted (at bottom) that, then I seen your thread.

[p358]

It's Aquaman.

Seriously, we destroy their oceans and expect them to just take it.

Better hope all the whales don't catch on or we will have sunken submarines littering the bottom of the ocean.

Blue whales especially.

P

[Chiefsmom]

It's Aquaman.

Seriously, we destroy their oceans and expect them to just take it.

Better hope all the whales don't catch on or we will have sunken submarines littering the bottom of the ocean.

Blue whales especially.

P

I say good.  Let them.  Except that moron humans are going to retaliate and start killing them, "for the good of humans".

We deserve it.

[quintessentone]

I was trying to find out if the sailboats just got caught up in with their hunting area or hunting charges, but since it looks like Greenland is still hunting orcas, I am now leaning towards this traumatized orca teaching how to defend themselves by taking out the boat's rudder. What they do to the humans in the water is another mystery.

Orcas are still hunted in some countries, such as Greenland. Different kinds of orcas are called "ecotypes". They hunt specific prey and live in different parts of the world.

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/fa...he%20world.



Just looking at Greenland's whaling boats I think an orca could mistake a sailboat as being a whaling boat because of the masts.


https://iwc.int/management-and-conservat.../greenland

[loam]

Compare with this article just a few months prior to these attacks.

https://www.newsweek.com/there-no-record...hy-1734489

Ironic.

"No records" doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

[Snarl]

I think I saw this movie, only now it isn't a movie. Orcas attacking sailboats is becoming "a thing".... Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water.

Did they eat the sailors?

I was doing a wall dive in Puget Sound back in the early '80s. An orca tried pushing me up to the surface. A pants-shitter on so many different levels. Me in a dry suit with my feet above my head, hanging on to the wall for dear life, hoping this big 'fish' doesn't decide enough-is-enough and bite down.

   

Dolphins are actually more intimidating when you're in the water with 'em.

[quintessentone]

I think I saw this movie, only now it isn't a movie. Orcas attacking sailboats is becoming "a thing".... Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water.

Did they eat the sailors?

I was doing a wall dive in Puget Sound back in the early '80s. An orca tried pushing me up to the surface. A pants-shitter on so many different levels. Me in a dry suit with my feet above my head, hanging on to the wall for dear life, hoping this big 'fish' doesn't decide enough-is-enough and bite down.



Dolphins are actually more intimidating when you're in the water with 'em.

Orca diets vary between species and pods. For instance, they will play with a dolphin, like hackensack, until its death, but they don't consider dolphins as their food. Maybe when people are in wet suits some may not realize we are humans until they are too close for comfort.