Killer whales attack a sailing boat off the coast of Morocco in 2023. Photo / screenshot
Sailors encountering killer whales in British waters have been warned to switch off their engines and lower their sails or risk being rammed after a pod of orcas attacked a yacht in Spain.
Two sailors were saved by the Spanish coastguard after their vessel, Azurea, was attacked by the whales off the coast of the Basque country this week.
The French yacht was rammed about 2pm local time, 3.7km from the Basque coast and the town of Deba.
The coastguard rescued the pair, one of whom was aged 60, after they sent out a mayday distress call. Both were taken “safe and sound” to the port of Getaria. Rescuers said such incidents were “uncommon” so high up in the Atlantic.
While such attacks are rare in the Basque Country, they are a well-known phenomenon further south in Galicia and in the “orca alley” of the Strait of Gibraltar, where boats have been sunk.
The orcas approach from the stern and hit the rudder before losing interest once they have stopped the boat in a phenomenon that scientists have struggled to fully explain. It is thought the orcas responsible for the incidents number 15 out of a pod of 50 whales.
This latest incident comes the same month that wildlife experts confirmed the first-ever sighting of Iberian orcas in Cornish waters.
In 2023, a killer whale barged into a fishing boat near Shetland in Scotland in what was the first and so far only orca attack in British waters since the phenomenon began.
“For some unknown reason, the killer whales have developed a penchant for breaking the rudders of sailboats and once they have achieved this, they leave the boat alone,” Volker Deeke, professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Cumbria in the UK, said.
He told The Daily Telegraph the incidents should not be viewed as attacks.
“During interactions, the animals remain cool, calm and collected without any of the behavioural signs of aggression such as splashing, or vocalisations,” he said.
But he said it “can not be ruled out” that similar incidents to those seen around the Iberian Peninsula could occur in British waters in the future.
He added: “UK sailors transiting the hotspots should definitely familiarise themselves with the guidance. The same guidance applies for sailors encountering any killer whales in Cornish waters.”
The guidance given to sailors in the Strait of Gibraltar includes to stop the boat engine and lower the sails immediately if orca are spotted, turn off autopilot and echo sounders and not to make loud noises in an effort to scare them away.
Other advice includes avoiding hotspots in the first place and, most crucially, to stay in shallow waters of about 20m in depth, where orca do not like to swim.
Dr Javier Almunia, director of the Loro Parque Foundation, told the Telegraph: “The behaviour has reduced, at least in the Gibraltar Strait, by around 90% following the recommendations of the Spanish authorities.”
Spain recommends that boats do not stop but instead go full speed towards shallower waters, which makes it harder for the orcas to headbutt the rudders.
Almunia said that if the interaction in the Basque Country was confirmed “it can be explained by the same animals moving around the Iberian Peninsula”.
“So far there’s no evidence of different pods to the ones that are visiting Gibraltar in summer are learning this behaviour,” he said in comments that will reassure British sailors.
“There’s no evidence of the behaviour moving on or being transferred to a different pod.”
Marine biologists believe that the whales may be attacking out of boredom. Other theories are that the whales are exhibiting territorial, defensive, or playful behaviour.
It has also been suggested that a female orca called White Gladis taught gangs of the apex predators to attack the boats after being traumatised by a collision with a boat, or being trapped in illegal fishing nets.
The first reports of aggressive orca off the Iberian coast began in May 2020.
In September of that year, Spanish authorities banned boats from setting sail from the country’s northwestern tip after 29 orca attacks were registered.
At least six vessels have been sunk since 2021, including two last year.
Two crew members were rescued unharmed in May 2024 when the 15m sailing yacht Alboran Cognac sank in the Strait of Gibraltar after repeated ramming by Iberian orca.
In July, the British yacht Bonhomme William sank in the Strait of Gibraltar after it was attacked at night. All three on board were rescued.
Two attacks in quick succession in August 2023 were the first ramming incidents involving orca reported in waters off the Basque Country.
A pod of about five orca struck the rudder and hull of a sailboat about 32km north of Zumaia without causing major damage, followed by an incident involving a French trimaran travelling about 29km north of Ondarroa. Both boats needed only minor repairs.