Killer whales are increasing their attacks on boats along the Iberian coast, in Spain and Portugal, even sinking some of them.
This is an extremely rare behavior, because even if killer whales are indeed predators, they do not usually attack humans or boats.
According to the information available to scientists, these killer whales belong to two groups.
“There is a small group of three to four males, and another small group made up of the mother and her family,” details in an interview with TVA Nouvelles Émilien Pelletier, Professor Emeritus of Molecular Ecotoxicology in Coastal Environments at the Rimouski Institute of Marine Sciences.
These two groups carried out several uncoordinated attacks against boats, such as dhows.
According to Mr. Pelletier, two main hypotheses are currently being considered.
“The first premise, which probably fits the male youth group better, is that it’s more fun, discovering new game, pushing and damaging boats,” he explains.
“In the second hypothesis, it may be the mother who wants to protect her family, and she may have had a bad experience with a fishing boat or a tourist boat. She could have been beaten or prosecuted,” the expert says.
This, at least, is the hypothesis put forward by the scientist López Fernandez, who believes that the mother, known as the White Gladys, whose group numbers about forty individuals, may have been traumatized by a previous encounter with a boat or a fishing net.
In an act of revenge, she would teach her comrades how to carry out revenge attacks.
“Less orques le font volontairement, between sûr, we don’t connaissons pas l’origine ou la motivation, mais le comportement defensif base sur le traumatisme, qui est à l’origine de tout cela, gagne chaque jour en force à nos yeux», announce Lopez Fernandez In LiveScience.
Monica Weiland Shields, DirectorOrca Behavior Institutefinds it an interesting possibility.
“I really think orcas are capable of eliciting complex emotions like revenge. I don’t think we can completely rule that out,” she said.
Even if killer whales sank three boats at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, Mr. Pelletier wants to be reassured: “After the boats sank, the killer whales did not attack humans. There were no deaths in these incidents, the humans on the boats survived.”
