iStockphoto / Elosoblues/Sandi Smolker/Oleksandr Khoma
Orca whale with laser eyes closing in on a sinking sailboat
While there has never been a documented instance of a wild orca attacking a human being, there have been numerous orca attacks on sailboats off the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) in recent years. The orcas have been observed ramming boats and causing damage to the hulls and rudders as sailboats have passed through the Strait of Gibraltar.
There have been theories floated as to why the pod of orcas off the Strait of Gibraltar has been responsible for many attacks dating back to 2020. They even sank a 49-foot yacht in 2024, the fifth time the killer whales sank a boat. And the working theory is one of the whales, dubbed ‘Gladis,’ began orchestrating the attacks after she was injured by a boat and the behavior then caught on.
Pod Of Orcas Attacks Sailboat Off Spain (Video)
A man by the name of Gage Butler shared this video on Instagram. He wrote that he and the rest of the Seika Racing sailing crew had just finished a regatta and were returning the boat from San Vicente, Spain to another marina when their vessel was attacked by a pod of orcas.
Butler estimated that 3-4 orcas attacked the sailboat for around 8 minutes. They lost half of the boat’s rudder in the process. And he added that these wild orcas looked smaller than the ones he’d seen at SeaWorld, saying he was “pretty sure they were juveniles just playing with the boat, which ended up breaking the rudder.”
Butler added that “tt was so cool to see how smart these animals are and how they play and hunt as a pod. But at the same time my adrenaline was pumping while we were investigating the boat to see if we had any leaks in the hull. Luckily everyone was safe and there was no major damage to the boat. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience.”
A paper was published back in 2024 about the orca attacks and in it scientists suggested the behavior may fade out over time. They wrote “ultimately, this behavior may disappear, as fads have in other populations, but it may also reappear at some point in the future. These are intelligent, socially complex, innovative wild animals and science cannot predict their behavior with certainty.”
Flash forward two years and evidently the behavior has not faded yet. Some experts have suggested sailors carry firecrackers or other noise making devices onboard to deter the orcas should they approach.