The attacks began suddenly and inexplicably in the spring of 2020. A pod of endangered killer whales has begun ramming yachts and fishing boats in European waters, sending some off course and endangering others.

Since then, there have been more than 500 reports of orca encounters off the Iberian Peninsula. In most cases, economic and structural damage ranged from minor to moderate, with boats spinning or being shoved, and rudders shattered and destroyed. Three ships were badly wrecked and sunk.

As the encounter continued, experts struggled to describe the actions and their timing, while a shaky video captured by the agitated and frightened sailors became a global internet sensation. This seemingly belligerent whale has won the hearts and minds of many aficionados. Many are glued to the idea that the mammals are targeting the wealthy, taking revenge for all the wrongs humans have done to the whale species and its home ocean.

Some wonder if the unusually large pods of multi-ton cetaceans now appearing off the coast of San Francisco, Monterey and Nantucket, Massachusetts, will soon follow suit.

Despite this prevalent speculation on social media, most killer whale scientists offer a very different interpretation.of white whale They say it’s highly unlikely that there will be a ‘revenge’ narrative for the act.

“That just doesn’t work for me,” says Deborah Giles, an orca researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of the Washington-based conservation research group Wild Orca.

She noted that despite a long history of killer whales being hunted by whalers and more recently by marine parks, these marine predators typically display a lack of aggression towards humans. There are no confirmed cases of killer whales killing humans in the wild. The only fatalities have occurred in marine parks and aquariums, where wild-caught animals that were forced to perform for humans in small tanks attacked trainers.

“So I don’t really think it’s a painful activity. I don’t think it’s going to decline like this,” said Mr. Owen, who has studied killer whales in the Pacific, Puget Sound and Salish Seas for nearly 20 years. Giles said.

Rather, animals are fighting the boats because the ships “may be making interesting vibrations or sounds, or the way water passes through the keel may interest these animals.” she thinks.

The scientific literature is replete with anecdotes and studies demonstrating the high cognition, playfulness, and sociability of the species known as snails. killer whale —and examples of what might be the cultural transmission of new behaviors, either through education or observation.

In 1987, a female killer whale was found in the Pacific Ocean off North America with a dead salmon on its head. Within a few weeks, two other shoal individuals also started wearing fish hats. This trend continued for several months, but disappeared within a year.

Great white sharks reportedly killed in South Africa Growing popularity among resident groups of killer whales The waters near Cape Town.giles saw Local trend of “Hokoenaside” Porpoise kills have occurred among whale pods off the San Juan Islands.

In both cases, the behavior does not appear to be for feeding purposes, Giles said. Killer whales do not eat animal carcasses. In the case of porpoises, for example, the killer whales played with them, sometimes surfed with them, and sometimes played with them on their pectoral fins until they drowned, at which point they were abandoned, she said. rice field. .

“Fads” are not unique to killer whales. Other animals, including primates and other cetaceans, have also been observed to adopt novel behaviors that spread throughout social groups.

UCLA biological anthropologist Susan Perry studied a population of capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica, where she observed one monkey “poking its eyes” as it slipped a finger “back into the joint” between its bodies. observed and demonstrated the cultural transmission of new behaviors in Eyelids and bottom of another monkey’s eyeball.

However, the idea that whale behavior is a response to trauma is not supported by researchers who have studied this population most closely, Documented behavior for the first time.

and Papers published last yearA team of Portuguese and Spanish researchers suggested that the behavior seen in Gibraltar killer whales may have been caused by a variety of causes, including trauma.

Alfredo López Fernández, an orca researcher at Portuguese conservation research group GT Orca Atlantica, said it’s impossible to know how it started or which whale caused the attack in the first place. said.

He named a few adult women who might be the initial perpetrators, and then taught and instructed others how to participate.

White Gladys is there and seems to participate in most of the attacks. Gladys Negra was observed to have sustained injuries in 2020, possibly from a ship collision. And Gray Gladys, who witnessed another whale trapped in fishing gear in 2018.

Gladis is the name given to all killer whales that interact with boats in their pods.it comes from orca gladiator, An early nickname given to killer whales that leap into boats.

“All these things must make us consider the fact that human activity, even indirectly, is the origin of this behavior,” he said.

Cal Currier believes whales entertain themselves.

On June 8, a 17-year-old Palo Alto high school senior was navigating the Channel with his father, James, 55, and his brother, West, 19, when a 30-foot yacht was hailed and spun around.

The rudder was broken and the three had to be towed to the Spanish coast. “They were playing,” Currier said.

He said when they arrived at the port, they were told about 30 boats were lined up for repairs ahead of them. Half were killed by killer whales. He said there were no bite marks on the rudder and he didn’t sense any aggression from the whales.

For Giles, a Washington-based orca researcher, her biggest concern is that the longer whales persist in this behavior, the more likely they are to be injured or subject to retaliation at the hands of humans.

She hopes authorities in the area will consider non-traumatic hazing techniques, such as instructing boats to play or make sounds that provoke the whales to stop them. She says her research has shown that killer whales don’t like the sound of pilot whales, and that they typically swim away when they hear them. It is also effective to make a loud noise, such as hitting a large metal drive pipe underwater.

“Anything that can provoke kids, lose interest, or swim away,” she said.

Karlie said she wasn’t too shaken by the whole experience, unlike her father and brother who “felt life was in danger”.

The trio will then sell the boat and spend the rest of their vacation on land.