Brian McDonald
A sailing yacht sank in the Strait of Gibraltar on Sunday after an unknown number of orcas – also known as killer whales – struck the vessel with two people on board and caused a water leak, authorities said. Both crew were rescued by an oil tanker that brought them safely to Gibraltar, the Spanish maritime rescue service said.
The incident happened at around 9:00 am local time in the strait between Spain and Morocco, which in recent years has become a notorious site of human interactions with pods of killer whales that, for reasons not yet fully understood, collide with boats and sometimes it even sinks them. In this case, crew members aboard the yacht SV Alboran Cognac made an emergency call for evacuation after encountering orcas about 22 kilometers off the coast of Cape Spartel.
The crew reported feeling blows to the vessel’s hull and rudder, which were damaged by the whales, the rescue service said. The agency’s coordination center in Tarifa, on the Spanish side of the Strait of Gibraltar, helped organize their evacuation via the oil tanker MT Lascaux. The tanker was able to collect the crew from the sinking yacht within an hour, and they disembarked in Gibraltar before 10:30 am. They abandoned SV Alboran Cognac, which completely disappeared into the ocean.
Anyone sailing through the waters of the Gulf of Cádiz in southern Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar, whether in a larger motorized boat or a personal sailing boat, is advised to avoid certain areas which the marine rescue service marks as potentially dangerous locations for orca interactions. The greatest threats exist between May and August, when authorities say pods of killer whales are most commonly seen in these parts of the Atlantic.
Spanish Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility
But previously recorded incidents suggest that such dangers could be present at any time. Last October, a Polish boat tourism company reported that a pod of orcas had managed to sink one of their yachts after repeated attacks. hitting the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing leakage. Last June, two sailing teams competed in an international tournament race around the world reported frightening scenarios in which multiple orcas collided with or pushed their boats on or while sailing west of Gibraltar.
No one aboard either ship was injured in these encounters, although the documented increase in confrontational behavior by killer whales in recent years has raised a number of questions. Researchers and sailors are trying to determine why orcases tried to sink or capsize so many boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.
Some sailors even resorted to exploding thrash metal music in an attempt to deter apex predators.
Reports of orcas interacting with humans have more than tripled in the past two years, according to research group GTOA, which has documented hundreds of such incidents in the region since 2020. But some of the latest data points to possible changes in killer whale etiquette. orcas, with the group reporting only 26 interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar and Bay of Biscay areas between January and May this year. This number is 65% lower than the number of interactions recorded in the region in the same months last year and 40% lower than the average number of interactions recorded in the same months between 2021 and 2023, according to GTOA.
