Spanish coast guard declares out-of-bounds zone after killer whales attack yachts

Sailing boats over 50 feet long have been banned from a stretch of Spain's northern coast

Credit: NATALIA PENZA

A mysterious spate of attacks by orca whales on boats off Spain’s coast has prompted authorities to ban people setting sail from the country’s northwestern tip.

The unprecedented attacks have crippled vessels and terrified crew members, and created a slew of theories as to what could have angered the whales.

Spain’s Merchant Marine agency has decreed an approximately 60-mile stretch of Atlantic coastline between Ferrol and the Estaca de Bares cape in Galicia out of bounds for small boats in response to the destructive ramming raids.

“I never expected to have to ban sailing in an area due to orca attacks,” Benito Núñez, Merchant Marine director, told local media.

Mr Núñez says the thinking behind the sailing ban is so that “the orcas stop seeing boats they find attractive in the area, and move on”.

The agency says that it has registered 29 orca attacks, most of which are on fibreglass yachts, in the same area near Spain’s northwestern tip, with several leading to damage to rudders and crews begging for help to return to shore.

Mr Núñez wants to prevent conflict between people and orcas, whose apparent sense of fun could put sailors in danger.

Killer whales seen nudging sailing boats in Spain

Credit: NATALIA PENZA

“We are also concerned about marine life; orcas are a vulnerable protected species, so it makes sense to avoid their having contact with humans”, he said.  

While the most recent attacks have taken place off the coast of Galicia since mid-August, gangs of orcas took turns to smash into the hulls of yachts in several ramming raids off southern Spain earlier in the summer.

On July 29, a 46-foot sailboat crewed by Victoria Morris, a 24-year-old biology graduate from New Zealand, suffered what she described as a “coordinated attack” by a pod of nine orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar.

At first they were “being lovely and playing around”, Ms Morris told CBC radio, adding that she was happy to interact with the animals as she had had positive prior experiences from sailing among them.  

But the encounter soon turned ugly. “They started surrounding us in a circle, coming for the rudder and the keel,” Ms Morris said.

The blows caused the vessel to spin violently in a circle, smashing the rudder and leaving the yacht adrift in a busy shipping lane.

The attack lasted an hour and the crew was eventually rescued after finally convincing the coastguard that they had been attacked by orcas. Cetacean experts say attacks by orcas are extremely rare, and such a spate of rammings is unheard of.

No one can be sure what causes the incidents, or even if the same pod is behind the attacks in Galicia and southern Spain, although this is a possibility given that orcas are known to migrate to the Strait of Gibraltar area in summer to hunt bluefin tuna, which are also sought eagerly by Cádiz fishermen.

One theory is that some orcas may be seeking revenge for attacks from fishermen, who have complained that the animals have learned to steal tuna from the weighted lines they use to catch the prized fish.

But another is that the return of noisy motors to the seas after months of silence in many areas due to Spain’s long lockdown may have annoyed some orcas. 

Ruth Esteban, a marine biologist, says: “Acoustically, the animals must have noticed the lockdown; it must have been a deep silence for them."