Why are some orcas suddenly attacking boats?

CLIP You are listening to a Frequency Podcast network production.

Jordan Heath Rawlings In today’s environment of endangered species, climate change, deforestation, overfishing, toxic waste, and everything else that can be laid at our feet, us humans tend to like stories of nature fighting back. It’s heroic at this point. It very much seems like David versus Goliath. It’s the stuff of science fiction movies and suspenseful thrillers, and it’s easy to root for until it actually happens to you.

CLIP Yeah, orcas are attacking and sinking boats off the coast of southern Spain.

CLIP We need assistant immediate Immediately. We are sinking. We are sinking.

Jordan Heath Rawlings That’s a sailboat off the coast of Spain, late at night, calling desperately for help as the boat sinks, but sinks sounds a little too passive. The boat was sunk in a manner that certainly looked purposeful by a small group of orcas, and it wasn’t the first time. Almost as much as we love fiction about nature fighting back, we love to write our own narratives on top of animal behavior, which is of course why you’re now seeing breathless headlines about orcas, fighting back, turning on humans, getting their revenge, all of that very human emotions. All searching for a motive when we don’t even know if one exists. The boats are being attacked on purpose, and the behaviour seems to be increasing in frequency. So yeah, we do have to ask why. What’s changed in these animals? Is there a reason for the behaviour? Is it instinct? Is it us? Is it just whimsy? The orcas aren’t talking, so we have to look a little deeper.

I’m Jordan Heath Rawlings. This is The Big Story. Stephanie Pappas is a freelance science writer. She investigated the orcas behaviour in a piece for Scientific American. Hello, Stephanie.

Stephanie Pappas Hi there.

Jordan Heath Rawlings I’m gonna ask you before we get going, and we will get into the details and the science and this behaviour. but first, how weird is this phenomenon?

Stephanie Pappas This phenomenon of orcas attacking boats is very weird. It’s extremely rare. There’s a few scattered cases where one orca has attacked a boat. You know, I think maybe a couple happened in the seventies, but this is the only place on earth that’s happening right now. And even there, over several years, there’s only been three boats that have actually sunk.

Jordan Heath Rawlings So take me back to the beginning. When did we first start noticing this anomalous behaviour in the strait of Gibraltar, like in this region?

Stephanie Pappas So the first incident in this region happened in May, 2020. but it didn’t really start picking up until later that summer in July. And most commonly what would happen is these small groups of orcas would come up to a boat, and these are usually pretty small boats, often sailboats and they would start going after the rudder and ramming up against it, and that would spin the boat. And in some cases they would ram at the hole as well, which would probably be quite scary if you’re on this boat. But, most of the time they’re targeting the rudders, sometimes scraping at them with their teeth, and they’re quite good at breaking those rudders. And so, Alfredo Lopez, who is an orca researcher at the Atlantic Orca working group in Spain, told me that almost 20% of the time that the orcas actually contact a boat, they damage it enough. So the boat is no longer navigable. They can’t sail it.

Jordan Heath Rawlings If this began all the way back in 2020, why did it only start receiving this kind of coverage, in recent months? Because it feels like now, even just over the last several weeks, we’ve heard a bunch of these reports. Have they just been happening steadily and we haven’t paid attention?

Stephanie Pappas Yes. you know, some newspapers did report on the first attacks back in 2020. And last year, Lopez and his and his team did a study on those 2020 attacks that got a little bit of coverage, but it was mostly in the Science Press. And I don’t know why it’s taking off now. I would say maybe third times a charm. This is a third time that they’ve actually sunk a boat. And maybe that starts to feel like a trend when you have three instance.

Jordan Heath Rawlings How often is the behaviour happening? You mentioned three sunken boats. It began in 2020. Do we have, like a full on tally of just how many attacks there have been? How common it is?

Stephanie Pappas Yeah, so this is still very uncommon. The chances of getting attacked by an orca in the Strait of Gibraltar is very low.

Jordan Heath Rawlings That’s good.

Stephanie Pappas Yeah. You have to understand like this is a very high traffic area for watercraft. You know, boats are in and outta here, right? Lopez and his team say that the orcas are only contacting maybe one out of every hundred boats in the area, and a lot of the times they’re not damaging those boats. So maybe they’re not even having direct contact. The orcas might come up to the boat but not touch it. Since 2020, the Orca working group has recorded 505 reactions and not all of those are contact. And when they do contact the boat, maybe it’s a few seconds, but sometimes it can be over an hour of them bumping up against the boat and they’ll typically approach under the boat so the crew doesn’t know they’re there, and then start kind of nudging it, pushing at that rudder. If the captain tries to push the rudder back, they’ll often push back harder. And once the cruise stops the boat, or if the rudder breaks, they’re typically losing interest in swimming away. Most of the time they’re not interested in going after the boat once it’s not moving anymore.

Jordan Heath Rawlings That’s fascinating. Has anybody been hurt, in any of these attacks?

Stephanie Pappas Luckily, no one’s been hurt. And the orcas don’t seem interested in attacking or hurting the humans on these boats. In one case, people who were on board, one of the sailboats that sank, they had to get into a lifeboat, and the orcas didn’t bother them at all, despite the fact they’re on a very small boat, very vulnerable, and we don’t have any cases of orcas killing people in the wild.

Jordan Heath Rawlings What kind of orca population are we talking about here? And can you describe them a bit, and their usual habitat. You mentioned it’s a really busy shipping area. Is that typical? What is it like?

Stephanie Pappas Yeah, so this area has been shared by orcas and people for as long as people have been, sailing, you know, this is a, the Mediterranean region has been an area where there have been people boating for thousands of years. And we have records going back of people reporting, running into killer whales in the area. So who’s there now? This is a really small, critically endangered, actually subpopulation of orcas. They’re separate from the other populations in the Northeast Atlantic. They kind of stay in their own bubble, I guess. And as of the last time there was an official census that was in 2011, there were actually only 39 orcas in that whole subpopulation. And what they’re doing there is mainly eating bluefin tuna, that’s their favourite food. People also fish for bluefin tuna, so that sometimes brings them close to fishing boats. Other than that, you know, they’re doing what orcas do, which is raise their young, hunting and these orca things.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Okay. First of all, is it all of them doing this, all 39 orcas or just a handful of them, or do we even know?

Stephanie Pappas No, I don’t think so. As of 2020, there were actually only about nine orcas out of the whole group regularly doing this. Maybe more have caught on since then, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the whole pod. One of the groups in 2020 was a group of three juveniles and was sometimes joined by a fourth juvenile, and then another was a group that was led by a female adult that researchers called Gladys Blanca, and one of her offspring and two of her sisters would join her as well.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Let’s get to the big question here. Why on earth would an orca subpopulation start doing this?

Stephanie Pappas So scientists have two theories as to why the orcas are attacking these boats. And so one is that the orcas might have had a bad experience with a boat, like maybe one of them got struck by a boat. Maybe one of them became entangled in fishing line, and the researchers don’t know which Orca might have had this experience. They suspect it could have been Gladys Blanca because she was the only adult in the initial attacks. But they don’t have any proof that she was actually injured. There’s no record of it. It’s just that in general, a lot of the orcas in this area do have scars from rope or have been hit by boats because sometimes they will come up to the fishing boats and try to snag tuna off of the fishing lines. So that does bring them close and sometimes they get wrapped up and, that might be the case that now they think there’s something bad about these boats and they want to keep them away.

Jordan Heath Rawlings So let me ask one question about that before we get to the other theory, because this is something that I’ve been wondering about. How would they know to go after the propellers?

Stephanie Pappas We do not know why they’re going after the rudders. Do they understand what the rudder does? I don’t know if you can see inside the orcas mind. I think one theory is simply the rudder sticks down and it moves and it’s kinda like, oh, a toy. That’s interesting. It may not be that they’re actually trying to disable the boats. They might just be messing around.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Okay, second theory, which is the weirder one. Tell me about it.

Stephanie Pappas So the second theory is that this is just a fad. Orcas are like these, like super playful and curious animals, and sometimes they just kind of do stuff for no reason. And just like in humans, it’s often the teen orcas who tend to start fads and we know there are some juveniles involved in this behaviour.

Jordan Heath Rawlings I can’t believe we’re talking about whale fads, but like explain how it works and what kind of stuff they do.

Stephanie Pappas Well, I mean, just like humans, orcas are social animals. So they live in these family groups and these pods and they work together to hunt for food. So they’re wired to learn from each other. You know, adults are always teaching their young how to hunt. And they’re smart, like you said. So they often are teaching each other new tricks. Like I read about one case where an orca figured out that it could go up to the surface of the ocean and regurgitate the fish it had eaten. And that would lure down seagulls and other birds and then the orca could catch those birds.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Smart.

Stephanie Pappas And it taught other orcas in its pod how to do the same. My favorite orca trend, I think the funniest is the salmon hat. So in 1987, this juvenile orca, off the coast of Washington state, started swimming around with a dead salmon on its head for no apparent reason. And all the other orcas thought this looked super cool. And so for the rest of the summer, salmon hats were all the rage in this area, in this, southern resident population here. And after a few months, All the orcas just kind of got over it. Kinda like humans get over Pokemon Go or the ice bucket challenge or whatever’s on TikTok and then they stop doing it.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Why would this be a fad? Because look, the hunting thing obviously is super smart and makes a lot of sense. The dead salmon thing is bizarre, but it’s cool, so whatever. But you mentioned like they can hurt themselves on these boats and against these rudders. So how would this catch on?

Stephanie Pappas Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question, and I think that’s part of what’s fascinating about this is that we don’t totally understand the orca thought process. They’re kind of close to us in the sense that they’re social smart animals, but we don’t really understand their motivations. I talked to one researcher who said, you know, I don’t think we’re going to know, because we just don’t think the way they think. Our environment is so different from theirs.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Are researchers is baffled by this and, and what do they make of it in general?

Stephanie Pappas I would say they’re baffled in the sense that nobody really knows why they’re going after boats, but they’re not necessarily surprised that the orcas have taught each other to do this because they know that orcas teach each other to do things. And they also know that orcas are very curious and playful and interact with their environment. So it’s not a surprise in the grand scheme of orca behaviour, but they are concerned because the, the concern is that there will be backlash against the orcas. It’s a critically endangered subpopulation. And the researchers in Spain, they started this working group because they were concerned that people might start retaliating against the orcas, or it might affect how people are interacting in the water. So the risk is more to the orcas than to people in the end.

Jordan Heath Rawlings If you log onto, any social media site right now where every time there is one of these incidents, now it prompts a round of like, yes, I’m on Team Orca. You know? What does that feel like to you? To see, to see this gain that kind of attention?

Stephanie Pappas It’s very funny because as a science reporter, I’m often reporting on things that my friends in my daily life and family have not read about or heard about. It’s a niche area. And then all of a sudden everyone’s like, did you hear about those orcas? And I’m like, yes. I wrote an article about those orcas.

Jordan Heath Rawlings It really has seemed to fascinate people though, especially because as you mentioned, you know, it’s only three boats and nobody’s been hurt but it’s making international headlines.

Stephanie Pappas Yeah, I think people are really drawn to these stories that emphasize our vulnerability as humans, because we’re so dominant, but we’re also these relatively tiny little breakable biological organisms. And if you can imagine this animal that’s like longer than a pickup truck coming after you in the ocean, that’s, you know, almost something out of a horror movie. It’s like the plot of Moby Dick. So it’s a very visceral reaction I think we have to these kind of stories.

Jordan Heath Rawlings What should people do if you know you are on a sailboat in that strait and all of a sudden, like you mentioned, you know, first they come up and check you out. Like, we have rules for like, you know, a bear attack, you make yourself as big as possible or whatever. What do you do when an orcas staring at you from the water?

Stephanie Pappas I don’t think there is a specific protocol for orcas from what I’ve read, the Spanish authorities are saying, you know, stop the boat and try not to look interesting. So don’t be moving that rudder around, I guess. But, there isn’t really a proven way to avoid the orcas once they’ve decided they’re gonna put you in their sights.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Could the behaviour escalate? What if it does?

Stephanie Pappas So far, this has only been seen in this part of the world, and they are a distinct subpopulation, so they really may not have a chance to teach it to other Atlantic orcas because they may not overlap all that much, but they could certainly keep teaching it to one another, and they could certainly keep doing it. And so far there isn’t all that much that people can do about this. There have been warnings in the region by the authorities that they should report orca sightings, you know, go slow when you’re sailing in this area, if there are sightings to stay away from the orcas. But there isn’t really a proven way that orcas obviously can come up to your boat without you knowing until they’re there. So, it’s a big open question as to what comes next.

Jordan Heath Rawlings I’ll ask this last, because you mentioned it. Should we worry about a backlash against these creatures? And maybe not against these creatures in general, but, I assume that that strait is pretty important, both for pleasure craft and for transportation. Will the authorities push to do something about this if it continues?

Stephanie Pappas I think that the biggest danger is likely to the orcas themselves. If the people feel threatened, we can do a lot worse to the orcas than they can do to us and that could be individuals deciding that they’re scared of an orca and you know, trying to harm one. So I think the main thing in that area right now is education for the people who use those waters. And also just a continual reminder that these organs are not going after people and we don’t have any cases of orcas attacking people directly in the wild.

Jordan Heath Rawlings I will leave you with this though, if the first theory is correct and the orcas are going after the boats because one of them was injured by a boat. And as you mentioned, somebody in a sailboat gets scared and tries to take matters into their own hand and does hurt one of these orcas. Whose fault is what happens next?

Stephanie Pappas I mean, it has to be humans, right? We are the ones who are in their environment, and we’re also the ones that as smart as orcas are, we’re a little more socially complex. And we have the ability to avoid that region much more than the orcas do.

Jordan Heath Rawlings So Team Orca then?

Stephanie Pappas I guess I’m on Team Orca, although I don’t really want to be on a sailboat in general, so it’s easy for me to say.

Jordan Heath Rawlings There you go. Stephanie, thank you for explaining this to us. This was a really interesting conversation.

Stephanie Pappas Thank you.

Jordan Heath Rawlings Stephanie Pappas writing in Scientific American. That was The Big Story. If you’d like more head to TheBigStorypodcast.ca, if you have any other crazy animal behaviour stories that you’d like us to investigate, please send them along because I love this stuff. And of course, you can get in touch with us on Twitter @TheBigStoryfpn. You can write to us with an email at hello@TheBigStorypodcast.ca. And you can call us and tell us a story at 416-935-5935. The Big Story is available in all podcast players everywhere, and you can ask for it on your smart speaker by saying play The Big Story podcast. Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow