Rudders torn from ship in latest attack off coast of Spain

Dramatic new video shows the moment killer whales surround a boat before tearing off its rudders as similar attacks are documented.

The captain of a boat attacked by killer whales for the second time while sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar says his first reaction was, “please, not again”.

Captain Dan Kriz’ boat was sailing off the coast of Spain on April 15 when orcas surrounded it.

Footage shared on social media last week shows one of the orcas tearing rudders from the boat and dragging them away in its mouth.

Speaking to Newsweek about the latest in a string of similar attacks on boats in the region, Mr Kriz said he thought the boat had been moved by a large wave before the realisation set in.

“We were about to cross shipping lines and turning south to the Canary Islands when we felt like we got (hit by a wave),” he said.

“It was only when the boat was hit a second time that he realised what was happening.”

It was deja vu for the captain who, in 2020, became one of the first to experience the bizarre phenomenon.

This is next level. A captain whose boat was attacked by orcas off the coast of Spain got footage of them going direct for the ship’s rudders. pic.twitter.com/oBsDJ54mDv

— Stop Cop City (@JoshuaPHilll) June 10, 2023

“I was surrounded with a pack of eight orcas, pushing the boat around for about an hour,” he said of the 2020 incident.

“We were one of the first boats experiencing this very unusual orcas behaviour.”

There have been dozens of orca attacks in the Strait of Gibraltar since 2020. On more than one occasion, the damage has been so severe that the boats have sunk.

As news.com.au previously reported, scientists have a theory: that one traumatised orca may have sparked the phenomenon.

A killer whale dubbed White Gladis by researchers may have endured a “critical moment of agony,” believed to be either a collision with a vessel or some sort of entrapment, then went on the attack, researcher Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, told livescience.com.

“That traumatised orca is the one that started this behaviour of physical contact with the boat,” López Fernandez told the outlet.

“The orcas are doing this on purpose, of course, we don’t know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behaviour based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day,” he added.

In one attack on May 4, three killer whales began ramming a yacht sailing inside the Strait of Gibraltar — and the incident was a family affair, according to skipper Werner Schaufelberger who spoke to the German website Yacht.

“There were two smaller and one larger orca … 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,” Schaufelberger said.

“The two little orcas observed the bigger one’s technique and, with a slight run-up, they too slammed into the boat.” he added.

The crew had to be rescued by the Spanish coast guard while the boat was ultimately towed to port and later sunk.

A killer whale tears the rudders from a boat at sea in the latest attack.

In another incident this month a pod of six killer whales came after a sailboat in the strait. Passenger Greg Blackburn, told 9news that a mother whale appeared to be instructing her calf in the boat-ramming technique.

“You can see in one of the videos the matriarch coming up and attacking the rudder with calf at side of her, then she drops back and then the little calf gets in to have a go,” he said. “It was definitely some form of education, teaching going on.”

Between July and October 2020, there were at least 40 orca incidents involving sailboats in the area around Spain and Portugal, the Maritime Executive reported.

Speaking of the latest attack, Mr Kriz said one adult orca became obsessed with the boat.

“(About 15 minutes after the attack started), they left and we started motoring in the direction to Barbate,” he said.

“Suddenly one big adult orca started chasing us. In a couple of minutes, she was under the boat, and that was when we realised there was still a little piece of fibreglass left and she wanted to finish the job. After that, we didn’t see them anymore.”