Discoveries

May 29, 2023

A Whale’s Tale

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Killer whales have been attacking sailboats and yachts off the Iberian coast of Europe in recent years, prompting scientists to believe that the behavior is taught by some of the large cetaceans to each other, Live Science reported.

Earlier this month, researchers and authorities reported two separate instances of groups of whales attacking boats crossing the Strait of Gibraltar off the coast of Spain.

On both occasions, crew members said the whale species – also known as orcas – would target the boats’ rudders. They added that the younger orcas would copy what their elders did.

These incidents have become more frequent since 2020, according to biologist Alfredo López Fernandez.

Fernandez recently explained to Live Science that the encounters usually follow a clear pattern: Orcas approach from the stern to hit the rudder and then lose interest once they have successfully stopped the boat.

In a 2022 study, he and his team recorded more than 500 interactions between orcas and boats around the Iberian coast, with the majority of them harmless.

Only three ships sunk from those encounters, they added.

Still, Fernandez noted that these attacks are a recent phenomenon and possibly originated from an orca’s traumatic experiences that may have triggered a change in its behavior, and the rest of the population later imitated.

Past studies have found that the cetaceans are social creatures and capable of replicating the behaviors of other orcas.

Other marine researchers suggested that the orcas could also be acting playfully or following a “fad” – a behavior initiated by one or two individuals and temporarily picked up by others before it’s abandoned.

Even so, these incidents could jeopardize the conservation efforts of the Iberian orca subpopulation, which is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

This story originally appeared in the May 29, 2023 newsletter, Russian Reveille.