The news is a yawn these days so I chose something that was of interest to me.

Another Sunday and another look at a story that has social media all a-tither but not so much here on IST….the attacks by those pesky orcas on sailboats.

It began off the coast of Southern Spain and move on to the Shetlands and now it is becoming common place…..

For weeks now, the internet has been enraptured by orcas attacking ships and even pleasure yachts — and the ferocious cetaceans show no sign of letting up.

In a new interview with PBS, a man who runs a website that tracks orca sightings and encounters off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, where in recent months orcas have increasingly attacked and sunken boats, said the angry whales are keeping busy.

“We are having one incident every day, on average, OK?” Rui Alves, the creator of orcas.pt, told the public broadcaster. “There are days we have two or three.”

Alves’ map for June, it’s worth pointing out, shows only 12 attacks so far this month — all of which took place in the Strait of Gibraltar, the area between Spain and Morocco — which falls mildly short of one attack per day, but point taken: they’re still at it.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/orcas-attacking-boats-almost-every-day

Even the rich boys club of ocean yachting is not immune….

A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in the around-the-world Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off, per the AP. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on the Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.” “Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull. Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 16 feet to 21 feet and weigh more than 8,000 pounds, bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula over the past four years. The behavior defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off of Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters—13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they’re playing.

The fact that two are adults could support a competing, more sensational theory that they’re responding to some traumatic event with a boat. The sailors were warned of the hazard. “We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg,” Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. “So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur.” Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to scare the orcas off, but not before it had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it’s expected to arrive this weekend. “They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks,” he said. “Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK.”

Some have asked why this has started happening?

What is it about sailboats that piss orcas off?

This ‘expert’ says they are just being playful…..

European sailors first reported a spike in orca encounters off the coasts of Spain and Portugal in 2020. The interactions have continued to grow ever since and are happening every day, now. 

The killer whales are not only ramming boats with their heads and ripping off rudders with their teeth, but they’ve also managed to sink three vessels so far this year.

“They clearly find a lot of pleasure in these encounters,” Andrew Trites, director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Insider.

But Trites isn’t talking about malicious pleasure, though it may feel like that for the people whose boats are taking a beating. Sailor Werner Schaufelberger described his encounter with orcas in May as “brutal.”

“They’re probably socializing, yucking it up with each other about their adventures without realizing the terror they’re creating in their moments of joy,” Trites said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-killer-whales-orcas-attack-sink-boats-2023-6

Sorry I do not buy that they are being frisky….there is more to these incidents than orcas look for a bit of fun.yukking it up.

Then there is another theory that seems more accurate to me…..

An orca attacked a yacht off the coast of Scotland, U.K. This is the first time this behavior has been recorded beyond Portuguese and Spanish waters.

Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist and representative of the Grupo de Trabajo Orca Atlántica, or Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA) told Live Science that behavior can spread through social learning, which could explain this encounter in new waters.

The orca repeatedly slammed into experienced yachts person Dr. Wim Rutten’s boat while he was fishing in the North Sea off Shetland, Scotland. Rutten speculated that the orca appeared to be searching for the “keel”, which is a large structural element on the bottom of a vessel that looks like a large rudder. Similar to the orca attacks in Spanish waters, the orcas appear to be drawn to features of boats that look similar to fins.

Iberian orcas, a small and endangered population, have sunk three boats in the last 18 months and damaged over 100 more by ramming. Some experts think an adult female named White Gladis may have survived a traumatic event that triggered behavioral changes and inspired the original attacks.

Experts think orcas may perceive boats as a threat to their food supply and survival.

https://outdoors.com/orcas-ramming-boats-miles-apart/

When I originally posted about these attacks I referenced the 1977 movie ‘Orca’ and how it explains what is happening with these attacks….

In case that bit of stage-setting didn’t make it obvious, Orca introduces Rachel, a distractingly good-looking marine biologist played by Charlotte Rampling, to drop 15 tons of exposition. “It is, without challenge, the most powerful animal on the globe,” she tells Nolan; Orca then shifts to a lecture hall, where Rachel makes sure we (and her students) understand just how badass killer whales really are. They’re fast, they’re huge, they have strong family ties, they communicate using their own sophisticated “language,” they have well-developed brains and a worrisome amount of teeth, their name means “bringer of death,” and, oh yeah: “Like human beings, they have a profound instinct for vengeance.” With this new knowledge, we can all agree that Captain Nolan’s scheme to capture one and sell it for big bucks to an aquarium is probably the worst idea anyone ever had.

https://gizmodo.com/orca-1977-retro-review-killer-whale-jaws-revenge-saga-1850560457

Apparently not many bloggers do not think this is a story they need to repeat….that tells me just how shallow most of them are.

Personally I love these reports….it is the most interesting stuff in the news these days.

Have you any ideas?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”