Killer Whales have declared war

[CoffeeHorse]

Iberian orcas have apparently declared war on boats, and they've sunk three so far.

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 (Orcinus orca), 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

www.livescience.com

In total, 52 interactions were recorded between July and November 2020 between the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia (NO Peninsula), including the coastline along mainland Portugal. Two new cases were registered from January 2021 on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and the Strait of Gibraltar, highlighting the persistence of this novel behaviour over time, reaching 197 interactions at the end of the year. In 2022 207 207 interactions were recorded.

Antecedentes | Orca Ibérica

Un grupo de personas que busca la conservación y gestión de una subpoblación de orcas en peligro de extinción en la península ibérica.

www.orcaiberica.org

52 interactions in 2020. 197 in 2021. 207 in 2022. It's going up, and they're teaching their young to do it.

Nobody knows exactly what started this, but knowing orcas it is actually likely that this is a coordinated revenge campaign for something. Someone got hit by a boat, or someone's mate or calf got hit by a boat, and war were declared.

I for one find their cause quite reasonable and think we should accept their terms.

 

[Donocropolis]

Have we confirmed that this is not actually the work of a mad genius in a Victorian-era nuclear powered submarine?

 

[Haywire]

Sounds like a movie...

Orca (1977) ⭐ 5.8 | Adventure, Drama, Horror

1h 32m | PG

m.imdb.com

 

[Platypus Prime]

I always wondered where this would go...things have escalated.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It has to be stressed how unusual this is. These boat attacks aren't something that gradually increased over time. Orcas have a remarkable history of not attacking humans in the wild. We have long histories with other apex predators that really aren't out to get us but they'll do it. Orcas just don't. And it's not that we're suddenly encroaching deeper into their territory. That ship has long ago sailed. They're definitely used to seeing boats and hearing the noise. They've tolerated it. Something changed in 2020.

 

[Haywire]

Thing is, in 456 incidents, they've only actually sunk 3 boats. And it sounds like most times, they lose interest once the boat is disabled. I think the initial attacks may have been retaliation for something (and the article indicates they think they know the individual orca that started them), but the majority of orcas doing it now probably just see it as a fun game. I do think it's interesting that most of the attacks are aimed at sailboats; I would think those pose the least danger to an orca.

 

[Platypus Prime]

The other problem, seriously, is that it may not be due to a slight against them, it may simply be a game. Remember, they're predators, and they don't operate on human ideas of 'right and wrong'. They will grab a young seal and toss it back and forth, just for fun like a human might toss a ball. The fact that they're torturing something to death isn't a part of it. It could be just that they worked this out as some sort of game, and they're doing it for enjoyment, not aggression.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The initial assumption was that it was juveniles playing a game, but that was before we had reports of adults leading the charge and teaching their young how to do it.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Ok, THAT is going to be a big problem...

Oh, here's an idea: We capture them and force them into small tanks and train them to do stupid tricks for treats till they psychologically snap and kill their trainers!

...what? What's wrong? It's been done...?

 

[Stepwise]

Possibly not timely enough to be funny, but I saw this in Morning Brew a week or so ago:

 

[Spin-Out]

the orcas have the opportunity to do the funniest thing in history

 

[Covert Agent Rodimal]

We have no idea how intelligent Orca actually are, because we treat them has "dumb animals" instead of another sapient species we share the world with. What if they are actually on our level of intellect and have just been ignoring us or laughing at us the whole time and only now have noticed we are a threat.

 

[Donocropolis]

We have no idea how intelligent Orca actually are, because we treat them has "dumb animals" instead of another sapient species we share the world with. What if they are actually on our level of intellect and have just been ignoring us or laughing at us the whole time and only now have noticed we are a threat.

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”
​

― Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I finally had a weekend, so I decided to read up on how the war's been going.

They sank another yacht on Halloween. The attack lasted 45 minutes. Clearly they're not discouraged when a rudder is a little more durable than usual.

 

[wonko the sane?]

They've tolerated it. Something changed in 2020.

Dude... the pandemic. A lot of the noise went away! You get used to something when it's slowly introduced (an ever increasing amount of boat traffic, for example.) but when it suddenly stops: you have a ******* epiphany about it. And you stop tolerating it. They want their quiet oceans back, and the only thing they can do is sink the noise.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Whales hunting yachts sounds like a Dethklok song.

Go into the water. Live there. Die there.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I wish we had some way to tell the orcas how many of us sympathize with their cause. I wonder if they would be surprised.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I wish we had some way to tell the orcas how many of us sympathize with their cause. I wonder if they would be surprised.

... There is a way to tell them.

Start sinking boats.

 

[The Predaking]

We here at the Allspark don't officially recommend or endorse any boat sinking actions/activities/plans.

 

[wonko the sane?]

We here at the Allspark don't officially recommend or endorse any boat sinking actions/activities/plans.

Welp, there goes my new years celebration.