So, on the night of May 4, three killer whales attacked a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar off the coast of Spain and damaged the ship’s steering wheel.
According to researchers, reports of encounters with aggressive orcas off the coast of Spain appeared in May 2020 and have since become more frequent. It is mainly sailing boats that are attacked.
Scientists believe that some traumatic situation that happened to one of the killer whales provoked aggression towards the boats. This caused a change in the behavior of the individual – “protective behavior based on trauma”, which the entire population soon learned to imitate.
It is likely that one of the killer whales survived a collision with a boat or was trapped while illegally fishing. As a result, she began to perceive ships as threats.