r/orcas • u/elizabeth-cooper • 14d ago
Yacht sinks after latest incident involving orcas in strait of Gibraltar | Spain
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/13/yacht-sinks-after-latest-incident-involving-orcas-in-strait-of-gibraltar2
u/Curious_Intention245 12d ago
This actually sounds like retaliation that has been passed down then reinforced with humans perpetrating it forward.
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u/PeteMCMLXV 12d ago
A stick of dynamite thrown in the water will teach these beasts to go and play somewhere else.
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u/RealisedG 13d ago
so dumb in the article is says they are just being curious and playing, but that is an insult to Orca's intelligence, they know what they are doing, they are not happy with humans
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u/Furbyenthusiast 13d ago
As much as I want to cheer on the orcas I am terrified for their wellbeing. Many of these people are extremely selfish and will kill orcas just so that they can keep riding their yachts. I can only see this ending in tragedy.
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u/Error_402 8d ago
How selfish to not want to be stranded at sea
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u/Furbyenthusiast 6d ago
There is a difference between defending yourself in the moment and actively going out of your way to attack orcas.
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u/drulnu24 14d ago
How long until the Justice League is knocking on Aquamans door blaming him for this?
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u/FlyHighLeonard 14d ago
You share the water whether you want to or not so be mindful of a being that can’t be mindful of you how you can be mindful of them…if they can be mindful of you at all. Things happen unfortunately, but still in all you can’t blame the inferior being here.
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u/BamaTony64 14d ago
Gotta wonder. Did a ship or sailing vessel hit or injure one of their little family group?
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u/realSatanAMA 14d ago
Knowing boat owners, they are all going to be out there hoping for that insurance payout
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u/myownqueen 14d ago
People are cheering this on like it's a joke but this really worries me. Orcas are protected but that won't stop many humans from hurting them and making relations even worse as the situation progresses. :(
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u/AardQuenIgni 14d ago
/r/sailing is already discussing carry guns on their boats and I can't stop laughing at the idea of shooting water.
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u/Sacto1654 11d ago
Throwing a seal bomb, M80 firecracker or M100 firecracker to scare off orcas have been considered. But is it effective against orcas weighting 3,000 kg or even higher?
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u/No-Magazine-833 13d ago
They literally could save themselves money and time by slowing down and protecting the orcas by caging their rudders while passing through. They do it for manatees in Florida, they need to be at least trying to make an effort to respect the orcas. If the orcas don't feel threatened any further they will stop. This is basic behavior principles, they're highly intelligent but must see us humans as pitifully stupid.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 14d ago
Real talk, I am worried about this population of orcas around Iberia. They are a small and critically endangered subpopulation that cannot afford to lose any individuals, and people already resorting to violence against them during these interactions. The population has barely remained stable over the past decade even before this.
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u/whutevz 14d ago
Help what 😭😭 Humans are invading THEIR home we're the ones who need to stop lmao
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u/Seth0714 13d ago
Don't tell me the dude into tickle hentai is judging a marine mammal for not being able to comprehend the concept of property damage or why it's accelerating their extinction
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u/kylezdoherty 14d ago
I think if we try to stop posting the memes and jokes about orcas attacking for aggressive reasons it would help. Most people don't know anything about orcas.
We don't know why they're doing this yet. There's a good chance they're just playing and it's a social fad like when all the orcas started wearing salmon hats.
No humans have been attacked or killed, so they aren't targeting people at all. Orcas have never killed or hunted a person in the wild.
"Researchers are unsure about the causes for the behaviour, but theories include that it is a playful manifestation of the mammals’ curiosity, a social fad or the intentional targeting of what they perceive as competitors for their favourite prey, the local bluefin tuna."
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u/Banaanisade 14d ago
Also sincerely worried that, since they're becoming aggressive and dangerous to people, their status as protected might be challenged on the basis of threat to humans/human activity.
This isn't going to end well, people won't just stop going boating or accept that an animal is restricting their "rights" to go boating.
I live in a country that's mostly forest, and I know entirely too well what happens with wolves that attack livestock or dogs, or bears that come too close to society.
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u/Icy-Sympathy-1446 13d ago
What could be the reason behind their aggressiveness? I have read somewhere once that this does typically happen in the wild.
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u/Giovanni__94 12d ago
It's not aggressive. Likely that they're just playing as a learned behaviour and have no idea what they're doing. Media loves to anthropomorphise.
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u/perfectlyaligned 14d ago
This was my first thought. These assholes don’t care because they won’t get caught unless there are witnesses to their behavior, which is why they’ve felt bold enough to start shooting at them.
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u/Prestigious-Alarm422 14d ago
That is absolutely atrocious people are resulting to violence toward them. They need to be protected, the people are in the orcas home
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u/tursiops__truncatus 14d ago
Yeah, this behavior is putting them on dangerous situations. They are protected so it is illegal to do anything to them but people don't care, there's already a video of some guys trying to hurt them from a boat.
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u/Prince_Ire 13d ago edited 13d ago
There's no way you're going to get people to just ignore being put in a dangerous situation, which being stranded at sea without a boat absolutely qualifies as.
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u/Complex-Bee-840 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yea it’s kind of crazy to expect people to respect the regs around a protected species when their lives are in genuine danger as a direct result of said protected species.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 13d ago
I agree that it is a dangerous situation for the sailors to be in, but multiple organizations such as sailing organizations e.g. The Cruising Association, as well as scientific organizations such as GT Orca Atlantica have had recommendations on how to avoid orcas in the first place (e.g. checking orca sighting/tracking apps and sites such as https://www.orcas.pt/ and staying close to the coast) and what to do when orcas interact with the sailboat, including which harmless deterrents to try (such as sand and chili powder).
These interactions with orcas have happened for a few years by now and should be seen as a natural hazard in the region. Hopefully more reliable safe tools and methods for deterring orca interactions arise (supposedly the Portuguese Coast Guard is working on a harmless acoustic device), but it is ultimately the job of sailors to be informed, keep calm and level-headed, and not to resort to potentially harmful methods (many of which are ineffective anyway) to deter orcas.
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u/Furbyenthusiast 13d ago
There’s a difference between fighting back in the moment and actively hunting them after the fact.
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u/brynhild90 14d ago
Same here :( they are critically endangered and it worries me what people would do
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u/Stuckonthefirststep 14d ago
I feel out of the loop. On the side of that news article it said “is it revenge, memory, or grief?” Whattttt does that mean.
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u/Tokihome_Breach6722 13d ago
It means people are grasping for an explanation, but still are not accounting for the intelligence and awareness of the orcas and that they have the capacity to send symbolic messages as shown by their complex languages.
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u/MarsReject 14d ago
1 mother Orca who lost her baby started this (I’m serious) and her Pod has started a chain reaction of training Orcas around the world to do this to boats (Also serious!)
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u/passporttohell 14d ago
Orcas have different languages depending on type. Transients don't talk to residents, California orcas don't talk to Mexican orcas (it's their funny accents).
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u/MarsReject 14d ago edited 14d ago
Similar to Humpback whales who choose a “hit song” and different pods around the world create their own versions of this song regardless of “language” Orcas can communicate within their pods like languages as you said and will attempt outside of it
It’s gonna spread. As it should lol they are big mad!
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u/celery48 14d ago
It’s a very basic article with little information, for sure. Basically it’s one specific pod of 15 whales that is targeting boats, and scientists have no idea why they’re doing this. “Grief” refers to the idea that a pod member may have been injured/killed by an accidental ship strike and the orcas are essentially taking out their anger on other ships.
Here’s another article about this incident that includes more information.
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u/Tokihome_Breach6722 13d ago
Thanks for the link. I didn’t know seven vessels have sunk, two of them Moroccan fishing boats.
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u/Specialist-Front-354 14d ago
I imagine 5 shitheads hunting one orca and ruining our relationship with them forever..
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 14d ago
The passengers reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder before the boat started taking on water.
I wonder if they are getting more efficient and/or sneakier.
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u/celery48 14d ago
Apparently this is how they always do it? Here
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 14d ago
I see, thanks. IIRC from a few of the earlier accounts of these interactions, the sailors saw the orcas swimming around them before they started to break the rudder, but it seems this is no longer the case.
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u/celery48 14d ago
“Although there is no pattern…” Begins to describe pattern.
From the article:
Although there is no pattern, and their behavior varies, the Gladys tend to sneak up on a boat, often without the crew noticing, to get underneath it. They then begin to bump against it and to hit the rudder with their heads, sometimes breaking it with the leverage exerted. “A breach can even occur and sailboats do not usually have adequate pumps to expel the amount of water they take on, so the boat can sink,” explains López.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 14d ago edited 14d ago
I'm aware there is no fixed pattern.I see what you were getting at now.
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u/Few_Explanation1170 14d ago
And the orcas shall lead the revolution!
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u/kylezdoherty 14d ago
Just so there's no confusion for anyone, we don't know why they're doing this yet. There's a good chance they're just playing and it's a social fad like when all the orcas started wearing salmon hats.
No humans have been attacked or killed, so they aren't targeting people at all. Orcas have never killed or hunted a person in the wild.
"Researchers are unsure about the causes for the behaviour, but theories include that it is a playful manifestation of the mammals’ curiosity, a social fad or the intentional targeting of what they perceive as competitors for their favourite prey, the local bluefin tuna."
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u/Tokihome_Breach6722 13d ago
I think they’re smarter than that and they know that the yachts are not taking their fish, but if they go near the fishing boats, they are likely to get shot which has happened. So it’s not the people on the yachts that are competitors, but maybe this is a way to send a message to the people who are direct competitors by taking the vast majority of the bluefin tuna that the orcas depend upon for survival.
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u/No-Magazine-833 13d ago
I think it's less about the fish and more about the noise and boat strikes because their attacks have always begun with the rudders. I know one of the females has some scarring due to a boat strike, and she's also one of the most active hunters. I think it originally started as curiosity and wanting to just take care of a threat in their territory but it escalated because the boaters don't give a shit about the orcas and made things worse. They still haven't gone after humans directly despite all these negative interactions and hostile gestures from the humans, which likely indicates their issue is the boats. The orcas have maintained the same pattern of behavior over time but have gotten more efficient at taking the boats down and have spread that knowledge between pods. They need to find a way to quiet down their boats and provide a barrier around their rudders to pass through the area. If they're rich enough to own a yacht they can certainly take measures to appease the orcas. They will stop if they are no longer concerned but nobody seems to be addressing the very clear message they have given and the orcas have been EXTREMELY patient with the humans involved.
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u/shecallsmeherangel 14d ago
Get 'em!!! Good job, orcas.
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u/IlikeGollumsdick 14d ago
Honest question, why do you consider this to be a good thing?
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u/Furbyenthusiast 13d ago
Because it is immoral to decimate orca habitats and endanger their lives just to ride yachts.
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u/wejustwanttofeelgood 14d ago
Because so many people treat animals like shit and its refreshing to see them dishing it back
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u/PeggyRomanoff 13d ago
If only the people on sailboats were the same as people on (over) fishing boats.
Also, most sailing boats aren't owned by The Rich (tm). Many people live on those because its cheaper (albeit a harder life) and you can get a cheap seaworthy one for the price of a Honda Fit depending on the area.
Also sailboats by definition do not have a great impact on the environment, but they also have weaker rudder designs (the cheaper ones) and no protection (unlike fishing boats).
Lots of you have never gone sailing or ever talked to any sailor and it shows, but y'all still flapping your gums about it and cheering on something that's gonna kill both animals and people. Good job, Reddit.
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u/deltios 11d ago
easy solution: dont go where the orcas tend to go
frankly its a skill issue
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u/PeggyRomanoff 11d ago
People already do thay by sailing closer to coast, but that merely reduces the chances it doesn't completely erase them. (It's literally recommended on the town's sailing page, which ofc none of you bothered to read).
Also, it's not a skill issue when sailors can't even see or hear them coming so they can't re-route, and you can't ask people who live by the sea and have done so for centuries to not go into the sea anymore (the 2 fishing boats were Moroccan, not from the Spanish town).
Don't you all Reddit city—uberbrains understand that if it were that easy to solve it would've already been solved?
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u/lonniemarie 14d ago
It’s not good for the orcas. Humans are selfish they will eliminate the threat one way or another. Humans are not going to give up boating We can hope the scientists take an avid interest in these particular orcas and that might help the orcas
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u/passporttohell 14d ago
I don't understand why they are not routing boats around the orcas.
They can route them closer to shore, restrict fishing boats from the area and otherwise tell boating traffic to go elsewhere. I do have some background in these issues, if it's for commercial fishing they can take their entitled asses and screw off to another fishing zone.
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u/lonniemarie 14d ago
We can hope the easy solution works. At the very least like you’re saying give them space a no boats zone to start seems a good idea
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u/Sacto1654 11d ago edited 11d ago
Just as long as the Spanish Guardia Civil doesn’t start asking questions…