Killer whales are on the loose!

A group of killer whales have been attacking boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.

Reportedly, the whales targeted sailboats and have attacked many such boats in the last two months. In the process, the killer whales have damaged multiple boats, and caused numerous injuries.

Most of boats that were attacked were travelling along the Strait of Gibraltar to Galicia.

One of the sailors, Victoria Morris told the Guardian that he felt the attack seemed “totally orchestrated”. Morris added that a group of whales, reportedly nine, surrounded the boat and kept ramming it for over an hour.

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Morris felt that they were attempting to capsize the boat

“The noise was really scary. They were ramming the keel, there was this horrible echo, I thought they could capsize the boat,” Morris said. 

“And this deafening noise as they communicated, whistling to each other. It was so loud that we had to shout”, Morris added.

The boat was damaged so heavily in the face of the sharks that it had to be towed away. The ship’s underside – its keel witnessed bite marks, with the crew reporting how the boat’s rudder was rendered unusable after the attack.

This has confused researchers, who claim that orcas are not usually aggressive. The intelligent animal has been seen following boats, and some of them even nibble at rudders to play, but no such instances of group based aggressions have been noted.

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One biologist claimed that he had never witnessed such attacks.

“I’ve seen these orcas grow from babies, I know their life stories, I’ve never seen or heard of attacks,”Rocío Espada, a biologist at University of Seville  told the Observer.

It is however possible that the animals were simply stressed. Espada claimed that the attack took place in area with heavy boat traffic. It has also been overfished, which was depleted the food supply available for orcas, perhaps making them angrier.

In view of the danger, authorities in Spain have warned boaters to steer clear of killer whiles.