An unknown number of orcas have sunk a yacht after ramming it in Moroccan waters in the strait of Gibraltar, Spain’s maritime rescue service has said, in the latest in a series of similar incidents involving the animals.
The vessel, Alboran Cognac, which measured 15 metres (49ft) in length and carried two people, encountered the highly social apex predators, also known as killer whales, at 9am local time on Sunday.
The passengers reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder before the boat started taking on water. After alerting the rescue services, a nearby oil tanker took them onboard and transported them to Gibraltar. The yacht was left adrift and eventually sank.
The incident is the latest example of recurring orca rammings around the Gibraltar strait that separates Europe from Africa and off the Atlantic coast of Portugal and north-western Spain. Experts believe them to involve a subpopulation of about 15 individuals given the designation “Gladis”.
Hahaha
🫡
A 49ft sail boat is not exactly a yacht. The orcas need to move up to bigger targets like the mega yachts of the oligarchs. Time to arm the orcas.
There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a yacht, as opposed to a boat, such a pleasure vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and may have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht
That said, I’m all for training and arming the cetaceans.
A theory I read about the genesis of these attacks reads a lot like the plot of that terrible 1970’s B-movie. It sounded far fetched TBH.
Team Orca
Good orcas
My spirit animals.
Eat the rich.
Ew. Junk food worse than McDonald’s.
They have acquired the taste for the sweetest of man-flesh.
I wish them well on their hunt.
From all the reports I’ve seen so far, they are in fact not attacking humans, just the boats. Unless this has changed.
too bad. I thought they were literally eating the rich
Give them time. They haven’t figured out how to open the can yet.
I just read that as well. Or there’s just no witnesses. Also read something that they stop attacking if the boat stops.
Well I’m interested in this world (sailing/ living on a sailboat) so I’ve been following fairly close. I don’t believe there’s any known non aggressive way to stop them. Stopping hasn’t been shown to help that I’ve heard/seen
The vessel, Alboran Cognac, […] encountered the highly social apex predators
The highly social orcas were clearly aware that the only true Cognac comes from the Atlantic coast, not the Alboran Sea.
How did they manage to break the hull?
Fucking yeet
I’m guessing fiberglass not a steel hull. So ramming it with the momentum of a small whale would delaminate or crack it.
That’s why im surprised. The laminate on those boats is pretty damn thick. It takes a lot of force to break it. Blunt meat impacts don’t sound like enough but maybe at this scale it is.
According to the Cruising Association, three yachts were sunk in 2022 and 2023 after orca interactions. As Fantini says, breaking the rudder completely can open a hole, and water can rush in, sinking the boat. Even those sailing in sturdy racing boats, with back-up rudders and rescue services close by, can find the experience frightening.
There’s a video on the source page of the orcas banging against the rudder. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230626-why-are-orcas-suddenly-ramming-boats
Based orcas
underwater castle doctrine
The orcas gave us enough time bring down the bourgeoisie. Now they’re taking things into their own flippers.
Nature is healing
That’s basically the intro from The Swarm
Evolution adapts to multiple problems at once.
A pod of orcas that vigorously defend their food supply, get to eat, and train their offspring to also defend their food supplies.
Orcas that don’t, either die off, or adapt to a different food source.
Thus why climate change is becoming a problem as nature is adapting to food sources becoming less abundant.
and wildlife becoming unfriendly or inedible to adapt to the changes.
I hate it when wildlife becomes inedible
Can confirm, this wildlife is not sitting well.
My only worry with this is that we start hunting them to eradicate or at least contain a threat, like we do to most wild animals who could potentially, perhaps, maybe, harm a human intruding on their habitat and territory. Like wolves in europe, we carefully reintroduce them after almost eradicating them entirely, they do what wolves do and prey on some livestock here and there, and people immediately ask for them to be culled.
We have likely killed most of their normal food sources
Save the whales has regularly been my own personal credo. Who knew it was the whales that would save us.
Arm The Whales!
We need to make them metal armor with Naval Rams on them.
