Twice-Ambushed Sailor Says Orcas Becoming 'More Strategic' After Boat Loses Rudders
It was a case of "Oh no, not again!” for a boat delivery skipper who came under attack by a pod of killer whales for a second time recently.
Captain Daniel Kriz was sailing to the Canary Islands to deliver a catamaran back in April when he felt a hard hit to the boat. He realized it was the same situation as back in 2020, when his boat was attacked by orcas. Sure enough, video from Kriz shows one of the orcas bashing against a rudder and breaking it off. “We lost both rudders,” Kriz is heard saying.
The rudderless boat “limped to Barbate, Spain, using its motors,” Catamaran Guru, whose boat was being delivered, said.
According to Catamaran Guru, Kriz said it seemed that the whales “were getting more strategic”. The most recent attack, he said, was much faster. It “took only 15 minutes … with both rudders being bitten off.”
The rise in orca attacks on boats around the Strait of Gibraltar has attracted attention from researchers, with various theories proposed, including triggering by some “aversive incident”, pressure factors on the local population, learnt social behavior, or simply the “natural curiosity of these animals”. Credit: Daniel Kriz via Storyful
Video Transcript
- [SPEAKING SPANISH]
We lost both rudders.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
We lost both rudders.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
We lost both rudders.
