Turns out orcas probably don’t want to kill you and the boat you rode in on. Photo: YouTube/Screenshot
Since about April of 2020, orca whales have been doing something weird: attacking boats. It’s puzzling behavior, and since we can’t just ask the whales why they’re doing it (yet), researchers have been forced to theorize about what possible reasons the orcas could have developed such an intense hatred for our sea-faring vessels. Now, scientists at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have released a report that might just answer the question. As it turns out, they probably don’t actually have an intense hatred at all.
“…the Workshop concluded that there was no evidence that the interactions between Iberian killer whales and vessels are aggressive on the whales’ part,” the team wrote in the report. “The behavior has more in common with fads seen elsewhere and seems associated with play or socializing, perhaps encouraged by the recent increased abundance and availability of prey—reducing the time needed for foraging—and by the reduction in negative interactions with fisheries.”
There have been 673 reports of the so-called “attacks,” which have been occurring mostly off the coasts of Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. As you’d expect when a pod of whales attacks a boat, most of the time they don’t end well for the boat. The whales ram them, focussing on the rudders and hulls, and the orcas tend to stick to smaller sized sailboats.
Not every interaction ends up with a sunken boat, but a few have. The report came after the Spanish and Portuguese governments ordered someone to look into the behavior. Those people included biologists, people working in the marine industry, and government officials.
Orcas, interestingly, have been known to take part in weird little fads like this. Back in the late-’80s, around 1987 or so, a group of killer whales in Puget Sound started swimming around with a dead salmon on her head. Over the next few months, she wasn’t the only one. Multiple members of her pod began mimicking the behavior. Then, like human fads, the whales just kind of… lost interest and stopped doing it.
“Different populations often have distinct dietary specializations that are maintained by cultural transmission, and these ‘ecotypes’ typically have a variety of persistent behavioral traditions that are related to their divergent foraging,” the report explained. “Some populations may also develop unusual and temporary behavioral ‘fads’ and other idiosyncrasies that do not appear to serve any obvious adaptive purpose. Understanding the recent boat interactions by Iberian killer whales may benefit from an examination of such ephemeral traditions in other well-studied killer whale populations.”
For years now, orcas have been observed doing something that we’ve coined “prop-watching.” In short, a whale with swim up behind a moving vessel and stick its face into the wash coming off the propeller. Researchers believe that the habit of smashing into boats may be an evolution of that.
Since it’s illegal for us to have pretty much any interaction with killer whales, it’s tough to deter them from boat bashing, but knowing that it’s not likely anything malicious might help a bit in reducing the damage it does. Since it is essentially playful behavior, the report recommends making boats less fun to play with. They also said that simply getting away from the whales is a good idea.
“Move away from the whales as quickly as possible, at least 2 to 3km [1.2 to 1.9 miles] from the area in which the whales were encountered, either toward the coast (in the Gulf of Cádiz and Strait of Gibraltar) or toward an area where rescue can be expedited,” the report said. “Moving away is not guaranteed to end the interaction or prevent damage, but may reduce the latter’s likelihood. Mariners should alert authorities as soon as an encounter begins, which should help with response time for a rescue if needed.”
