If you had to battle any animal in the wild, which would you least like to battle? I’m sure many are thinking lions or bears or even hippos (because they’re all beautiful killing machines), but I advise you, dear read, don’t sleep on the orcas.
Three orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as killer whales, struck a yacht on the night of May 4 in the Strait of Gibraltar, off the coast of Spain, and pierced the boat’s rudder. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be much of a story, but this is the third such attack by orcas and the third boat sunk off the Iberian coast of Europe (they’re shooting 100%), and aquatic experts are starting to believe the behavior is being copied by the rest of the population. Which is to say, these attacks aren’t random.
"There were two smaller and one larger orca," skipper Werner Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht. "The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side." Ask any naval expert, these are advanced attacking maneuvers on display here. Schaufelberger said he saw the smaller orcas imitate the larger one. "The two little orcas observed the bigger one's technique and, with a slight run-up, they too slammed into the boat." Fortunately, Spanish coast guards rescued the crew and towed the boat to Barbate, but it sank at the port entrance. A clear victory for the Orcinus orca.
Reports of aggressive encounters with orcas off the Iberian coast began in May 2020 and are becoming more frequent, according to a study published June 2022 in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Assaults seem to be mainly directed at sailing boats and follow a clear pattern, with orcas approaching from the stern to strike the rudder (boat talk), then losing interest once they have successfully stopped the boat.
Orcas are incredibly social creatures that can easily learn and reproduce behaviors performed by others, according to the 2022 study. In the majority of reported cases, orcas have made a beeline for a boat's rudder and either bitten, bent or broken it. Experts believe that a female orca they call White Gladis suffered a "critical moment of agony", a collision with a boat or entrapment during illegal fishing for example, that flipped a behavioral switch. One traumatized orca is all it takes to start this behavior of physical contact with boats.
The lesson to learn here; don’t start a fight with an orca. Their memory is long and they will finish the fight.
Side Items
Pete Buttigieg, Still a Rat: It’s been awhile since I read an interview so fawning in its coverage that it reads like fan-fiction, but the folks over at Wired have done it again. In this article, titled “Pete Buttigieg Loves God, Beer, and His Electric Mustang” we’re re-introduced to Mr. Buttigieg, the 41-year old man child that wants so desperately to become a career politician, but clearly lacks the charisma, charm, or allure of an ordinary candidate. The very first sentence of the article tells us everything we need to know about the author; “The curious mind of Pete Buttigieg holds much of its functionality in reserve.” Who writes like this? We’re talking about a guy whose professional pinnacle is serving as mayor of a college town in Indiana. Call me a hater, but I think it’s about time we brought back bullying