Two people had to be rescued by Maritime Rescue off the coast of the Basque Lands after their yacht was attacked by a killer whale (orcas).
This took place two nautical miles off the coast of Deba a little before 14.00h yesterday, which was when the Salvamento Marítimo HQ in Bilbao received an SOS from a French yacht. The two crew members said that a group of killer whales (a pod?) was ramming their hull and had damaged the rudder leaving them unable to steer the vessel.
The rescue ship Salvamar Orión, which has a length of 20 metres and a width of five metres, was sent out from Puerto de Pasaia where it is based.
When the Salvamar Orión reached the damaged yacht it was to find that the two people onboard were unharmed and that it was not in any danger of sinking. So, they threw a line to them and took the yacht under tow to Puerto de Getaria, arriving at 17.37h.
Although incidents like this have taken place before, most of them occurred in the Straits of Gibraltar between the months of April and August, and not in the area of this latest attack.
There was an incident in 2020 off the Galician Coast and consequently sailing between Ferrol and Estaca de Bares was restricted because of this problem.
Because of this increase in such incidents, Spain and Portugal jointly commissioned a scientific study which found that this behaviour was a form of entertainment between young killer whales, also known as orcas (Orcinus orca).
Between May 2020 and May 2024 there were 637 interactions between orcas and boats, However, Marine Biologist Naomi Rose pointed out that these are intelligent animals and that if they really wanted to sink a yacht, they would be able to do it.
“If they really wanted to sink a boat, they would do it, but their object appears to be a clash with rudders and only in 20% of these incidents did they manage to damage a sail ship so much that it was unsteerable,” she explained.
The official advice in these situations is not to stop but to head straight for the coast and shallower waters.
(News: Basque Lands, Spain)
Keywords: Killer Whales, Orcas, Attacks, Rudders, Yacht, Maritime Rescue
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