The ‘Sula’, a fourteen-meter-long sailboat, was sailing at dawn on Wednesday, October 20, 2021, 13 miles southeast of Cabo de Palos when a blow to the hull put its skipper on alert, who was covering the route between Formentera and Benalmádena in the company of your partner. When they received this attack that took them off course, at 2:30, they were moving under sail, with the autopilot and at a speed of seven knots.
What was happening? The boat began to shake and snorts were heard, so the skipper turned his flashlight to the starboard sea in search of an explanation. What he saw were two killer whales – although the probe marked up to four more bodies under the boat and around it – that apparently reproduced the strange behavior of these cetaceans since 2020 in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia, where they chase boats, preferably sailing ones, even until they collapse. The last case, last month, ended with the sinking of the ‘Alborán Champagne’ in Barbate (Cádiz).
While the crew of the ‘Sula’ collected the sails, started the engine and tried to steer the boat, the sailboat was left adrift due to the breakage of the rudder blade after 45 minutes of siege. This is the story that appears in the work report of that day in Maritime Rescue of Cartagena, that she came to the rescue with her boat ‘Salvamar Mimosa’ after receiving a call for help on the radio.
Several orcas hit the hull of the ‘Sula’ until it was ungovernable, its crew members told Salvamento Marítimo
The director of the Association of Naturalists of the Southeast (ANSE), Pedro García, who spoke with the skipper of the ‘Sula’ after learning about this incident, even rarer because it occurred far from the Strait, provides more information: “The pandemic had passed with the ship in New Zealand. He told me that he had been lucky enough to sail with orcas there and that he couldn’t be expected to be scared like that by orcas in the Mediterranean, “recalls the ecologist leader, with extensive experience in scientific monitoring of cetaceans from the sailboat.” Else’ on the coasts of the Region of Murcia, Alicante and Andalusia. “He had no doubt, he assures that he saw them clearly,” adds Pedro García, consulted by LA VERDAD.
Sighting in Escombreras
Before the attacks on boats began, the orcas had already visited Cartagena: a family made up of four specimens – one male and one adult female, one calf and one immature – was sighted and recorded over two days in November 2019 in front of the Escombreras basin from a Zódiac from the Navy Diving Center (CBA) and a Port Authority boat. An “exceptional” sighting, in the opinion of Pedro García, which was the first record of this species in the waters of the Region.
The director of ANSE highlights the great scientific interest of the orcas of the Strait of Gibraltar, some fifty specimens divided into five groups -according to the most recent census-, settled during the summer on the coast of Cádiz to take advantage of the entry and exit of tuna reds between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In winter they move to the coast of Galicia.
Killer whales (‘Orcinus orca’), large predators, can measure up to nine meters and weigh five tons.
There is no consensus among researchers about the reasons for the attacks: at first it was studied as training for tuna hunting and now it is speculated that it could be a defensive response to a traumatic incident between a boat and an orca. Pedro García warns about the “danger” for this species in a vulnerable situation of a behavior “that, as occurs in cetaceans, is transmitted to young individuals.”
Only so far this year there have been 53 interactions with orcas in the Strait, most of them attributed to a group led by the female known as ‘Gladis’.
Satellite control of six specimens
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) is promoting the satellite tagging of six orca specimens, in collaboration with Circe –Conservation, Information and Study on Cetaceans–. One specimen has already been marked, previously identified as one of those that interact with the boats. The data provided by the satellite brand will allow, during the period in which the device is operational, to identify their location in the last hours and to prepare a weekly map of the area in which they move during that period. This information will be disseminated for the knowledge of the navigators.
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