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Why do orcas keep attacking boats off the coast of Spain?

After a spate of boat attacks in 2023, orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar have again been targeting small vessels in recent months. Scientists have several theories as to why the world's biggest dolphins are displaying this strange behaviour.

Published: 26 July 2024 12:36 CEST
Why do orcas keep attacking boats off the coast of Spain?
Many marine biologists are against orcas being named killer whales as they believe the moniker demonises them.(Photo by MARCEL MOCHET / AFP)

According to marine biologists, orca encounters with humans have been on the rise since 2020, and over the last four years an orca pod in the Strait of Gibraltar have been ramming boats, even causing some of them to sink.

Research from GT Atlantic Orca, a group that tracks orca populations, have reported nearly 700 interactions of orca attacks on ships in this area since 2020.

In 2023, there were a total of 53 boat incidents involving killer whales, and over the last four years a total of seven boats have been sunk and many more damaged.

Map showing orca collisions and incidents with boats in the Strait of Gibraltar in recent months. Source: Orca Ibérica

In May 2024, a pod in the Strait of Gibraltar struck again, sinking their first yacht of the season, and within a few days many more attacks had been reported.

Another boat sinking occurred in mid-July, and both fisherman and pleasure boats owners are concerned about the possibility of more this summer.

The main question that scientists are asking is why this is happening and what’s the reason behind the increase in incidents?

There are three main theories according to some of the world’s leading marine biologists.

The first theory is that it’s down to an orca named White Gladis, the matriarch of a pod of killer whales in the Gibraltar Strait.

Scientists believe that this orca may have had a run in with boats in the past and possibly been injured by a rudder or propeller, causing her severe trauma. It is thought this caused her to start attacking boats, passing on this behaviour to her offspring and other members of the pod.

Other biologists argue that killer whales don’t seek revenge the way humans might and believe that it’s all simply one big game to them for the ‘teenage’ members of the pod, imitating one another’s behaviour.

READ ALSO: Spain’s police bust gang that faked orca attacks to smuggle drugs

They are just playing with the boat and are not interested in hurting the people on board at all, they claim. In fact, when members of the crew have abandoned the boats in life rafts, the orcas have simply ignored them and carried on ramming the boats. 

Co-founder of the Andenes Whale Centre in (Norway) Hanne Strager is one biologist who believes in this theory.

He told National Geographic that there was no aggressive intent in the orcas: “When you interact regularly with animals, and you are used to reading them, you can sense an aggressive intent, and they don’t have it all”, he said. 

Some believe that it could be that Gladis is simply playing too and her pod are just copying her behaviour. 

The third theory proposed is that the attacks are down to declining tuna populations due to overfishing by humans.  

The Association in Defence of Urban Trees, Biodiversity and the Environment (DAUBMA) of Ceuta has linked the attacks by orcas with the decline in the number of tunas in the area.

READ MORE: Scientists puzzled by killer whale boat attacks off Spain

Environmentalists have also warned that these attacks “are cause-effect of human super-predation on tuna, since the increase of orcas in coastal areas is due to uncontrolled fishing of tuna”.  This is “having an impact on the orcas’ prey, with the killer whales having to teach their youngsters to hunt, so if we continue fishing in the same way, this same thing will happen,” they point out.

Essentially the orcas’ food is located in traps close to where these boats sail.  

Tuna is fished in a unique way in the Strait of Gibraltar, using the ancient Almadraba method, a traditional fishing technique used to catch enormous quantities of bluefin tuna on their annual migration through the area by setting up huge nets and traps.

READ MORE: Spain’s 3,000-year-old tuna fishing tradition

Orcas, often called killer whales, are not actually whales but the largest species in the dolphin family. They are an apex predator but they’re not generally considered a danger to humans as there have been very few fatal attacks, especially in the wild. 

According to the UK’s Whale and Dolphin Conversation, they got the name ‘killer whale’ from ancient sailors who observed orcas hunting and preying on large whale species, and the word orca itself derives from “Orcus”, the Roman god of death and the underworld.

Many marine biologists are against orcas being named killer whales as they believe the moniker demonises them.

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WILDFIRES

Why has Spain had far fewer wildfires this summer?

Wildfires have been a common feature of Spanish summers in recent years, but several factors have come together so far this year to ensure far less destruction.

Published: 2 September 2024 16:12 CEST
Why has Spain had far fewer wildfires this summer?

So far this year wildfires in Spain have burned 42,314 hectares of land. That may sound like a lot, but it’s actually a lot less than usual – 46.4 percent less than in the same period in 2023, to be exact, when 78,852 hectares were scorched.

In fact, 2024 hasn’t just been a low year relative to 2023 but the entire last decade – 46.5 percent less than the average for the last ten years, according to data from Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO).

In terms of geography, the inland regions have suffered more fires than in the north or on the Mediterranean coast this year. Burnt areas in these inland parts of Spain represent 43.5 percent of the total to date, compared to 37.35 percent in the Mediterranean area and 19 percent in northeastern Spain.

So far the most serious fire this year was in Jaén in southern Spain, which devastated some 3,600 hectares and forced hundreds of people to be evacuated from their homes. But it was still nothing like the massive wildfires of previous years that burnt 10,000 hectares or even 20,000 hectares that we’ve become used to seeing.

July and August are generally thought to be the worst months of wildfire season, but experts warn that September is still a crucial month for controlling them. Looking at data, however, the signs are good so far.

Why has Spain had far fewer wildfires this summer?

Meteorologist at El Tiempo.es, Mario Picazo, points to the different weather conditions this year, particularly over the summer months. In a sentence this basically means that conditions have been more favourable compared to previous years when it comes to wildfires.

Spain’s Military Emergency Unit has observed that vegetation has had a higher moisture content this year, especially during part of the summer. Dry vegetation and plant material is highly combustible and is one of the fastest ways for wildfires to spread.

Rain and higher moisture levels, according to Picazo, have played a role in reducing both the number and intensity of wildfires this year.

“Although it cannot be said to be the only factor, the rain in June has had a lot to do with it,’ stated one Ministry representative in Spanish daily El País.

Heightened awareness about the dangers of wildfires following major blazes in the summer of 2023 also likely played a role in the reduction. Awareness campaigns started in 2022 have obviously had some impact, seeing as around 80 percent of wildfires are caused by some kind of human action, whether intentional or accidental.

But it does seem the favourable weather conditions played a big role. Summer this year began with relatively mild temperatures and there has been rain to some degree in most parts of the country. This has increased humidity levels in drought-ridden areas that were previously extremely dry, such as in Catalonia.

There have also been some storms in the Mediterranean region, which, although isolated, have helped to reduce the dryness in the environment and made wildfires less likely to start and spread.

Juli Pausas, a CSIC researcher and fire expert, stresses that this year “there have not been the extreme conditions” that usually generate the large, uncontrollable wildfires we’ve become used to seeing in Spain in recent years.

Strong winds also play a role in this. “Fortunately, the wind has not blown with the necessary force to get the fires out of control,” Pausas says. This means that any fires that have started, something less likely due to the rains and higher humidity levels, are easier for the emergency services to control.

READ ALSO: What to do and what to avoid if you see a wildfire in Spain

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