The orcas are at it again: for the seventh time in four years, a pod of whales has sunk a boat after ramming it in Moroccan waters off the Strait of Gibraltar.
The 15 metre-long yacht Alborán Cognac, which carried two people, encountered the highly social apex predators at 9am local time on Sunday, Spain's maritime rescue service said.
The passengers reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder before water started to seep into the sailboat. It is not known how many orcas were involved.
After alerting rescue services, a nearby oil tanker took them onboard and carried them to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on Spain's southern coast.
Nothing could be done to save the sailboat, which drifted and eventually sank.
It's the latest incident in what has become a trend of hundreds of interactions between orcas and boats since the "disruptive behaviour" was first reported in the region in May 2020.
The origin of this new behaviour has baffled scientists, though the leading theory suggests this "social fad" began as a playful manifestation of the whales' curiosity.
Where have orcas interacted with boats?
The latest data from the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), an organisation that contributes to the animals' conservation and management, shows that there have been at least 673 interactions since 2020.
GTOA defines interactions as instances when orcas react to the presence of approaching boats with or without physical contact.
The map below shows the highest numbers of encounters from April to May 2024 took place off Spain's southern coast in the Strait of Gibraltar (red zones), with some lesser activity in surrounding areas (yellow zones).
A 2022 peer-reviewed study published in the Marine Mammal Science journal found the orcas in these areas preferred interacting with sailboats — both monohulls (72 per cent) and catamarans (14 per cent) — with an average length of 12 metres.
A clear pattern emerged of orcas striking their rudders, while sometimes also scraping the hulls with their teeth. Such attacks often snapped the rudder, leaving the boat unable to navigate.
"The animals bumped, pushed and turned the boats," the authors of the report said.
Adding this week's encounter, there have been seven reported cases of orcas damaging a boat so badly that it has sunk, though thepeople onboard were rescued safely each time.
In June 2023, a run-in with the giant mammals in the Strait of Gibraltar forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off.
No-one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said that it had been a "scary moment".
"Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders," he said.
"Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team ... Luckily, after a few attacks, they went away."
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After analysing 179 videos and photos of these types of interactions, which lasted on average 40 minutes, researchers concluded there was no reason to classify the events as intentionally hostile behaviour.
"The behaviour of orcas when interacting with boats is not identified as aggressive," they said.
"One of their main motivations has been identified as competition with boats for speed."
Still, the researchers of the study admitted they were not sure what triggered the novel behaviour in 2020.
"We are not yet certain what the origin of these interactions is, but it is still suspected that it could be a curious and playful behaviour," they wrote.
"[The behaviour] could be self-induced, or on the other hand it could be a behaviour induced by an aversive incident and therefore a precautionary behaviour."
Are the same orcas responsible for these incidents?
Out of around 49 orcas living in the Strait of Gibraltar, GTOA researchers found a total of 15 whalesfrom at least three different communities participated in the unusual interactions with boats between 2020 and 2022.
Most of those that engaged with greater intensity were juveniles, though it's unclear if others have since joined the group.
These giant mammals, which belong to the dolphin family, can measure up to eight metres and weigh up to six tonnes as adults.
The director of the Orca Behaviour Institute, Monika Wieland Shields, has said there is no evidence to prove the theory these whales were seeking vengeance against humans for a past trauma.
"While I'm sure it feels like an attack for the people on board, for the whales themselves, it really looks more like play behaviour," she said.
"There's something intriguing or entertaining to them about this [boat rudder] mechanism and they're just showing a lot of curiosity about it."
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Ms Wieland said it's likely this new behaviour spread through the population as a kind of "social fad".
"Orcas are highly intelligent, very social animals, and with that comes a tendency to be curious about and explore your environment," she said.
"One thing that we see are these kind of fad behaviours that will appear in a certain population.
"One whale discovers something, they find it entertaining or interesting, or fun — it's some type of game. And then they will teach that to other members of their family group."
Are orcas dangerous to humans?
While orcas have earned their fearsome reputation for preying on other marine animals, there is no record of them killing humans in the wild.
In captivity, orcas have killed four people since the 1990s, though it's unclear whether the deaths were accidental or deliberate attempts to cause harm.
Ms Shields said she was worried the recent interactions between orcas and boats would skew people's perceptions of these mammals.
"I am concerned that people are going to react with fear, potentially injure or shoot at some of these whales,"Ms Shields said.
"We really need to educate boaters about the best things that they can do to make themselves less attractive to the whales and the best case scenario would be the whales lose interest in this and move onto something less destructive."
Spain's Transport Ministry advises that whenever boats observe any changes in the behaviour of orcas — such as in their direction or speed — they should leave the area as soon as possible and avoid further disturbance to the animals.
The ministry also states every interaction between a ship and an orca must be reported to authorities.
