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Killer whales sink $128k yacht in ‘terrifying’ 2-hour mediterranean sea attack: ‘like watching wolves hunt’.

Orcas relentlessly battered a yacht in a “terrifying” two-hour attack Wednesday that didn’t end until the $128,680 vessel sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Robert Powell, 59, and his crew were just 22 hours into their 10-day trip from Vilamoura, Portugal, to Greece when the pod set its sights on the £100,000 — or $128,680 — sailing boat.

“To me, they were not playing at all, they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the weak points of the boat, and they knew how to sink it,” Powell, who was meant to be celebrating his birthday aboard the boat, told SWNS.

“Their sole intention was to sink the boat, and that was it.”

The five orcas circled the 39-foot sailing boat and took turns smashing it to bits around 8 p.m. in a coordinated assault Powell compared to the carnage of wolves.

The IT company owner said he felt the first hit on the bottom of the boat, named the Bonhomme William, and assumed they had run over a rock.

“Whilst I was looking around the boat to see if I could see anything — I was doing about 5 to 6 knots — it got hit again,” Powell recalled.

“On the second hit, I looked over the back of the boat, and I could see the dark shape of a killer whale in the water.”

The pod of five first focused on the rudder, rendering the sailboat unable to steer after about 15 hits.

That’s when the orcas separated and each concentrated on their own section of the boat’s exterior, including the keel and stern.

“They were circling. It was like watching wolves hunt,” Powell said.

“They were taking it in turns to come in — sometimes two would come in at the same time and hit it. So obviously pretty terrifying.”

It took an hour and a half until the hull finally buckled beneath the whales’ pressure and split, causing water to gush into the main living area of the Bonhomme William.

Though they were just two miles off the coast of Spain — and the crew radioed for help as soon as the attack began — it took two hours before help arrived.

A Spanish salvage vessel fortunately helped them abandon the stricken ship, minutes before it sunk 130 feet below the Mediterranean’s surface.

Powell — who lost his birthday trip and his ritzy boat — said he tried everything from dropping firecrackers in the water and turning off the engine to deter the attack, but the pod was determined.

“It was a very long attack, and it was really the violence of the attack that surprised me,” he said.

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The former boat owner believes the pod — which included two juveniles — could be the same group responsible for terrorizing other skippers in European waters in recent years.

“I have a feeling that this group are boat sinkers — I think they knew what they were doing, I’m sure of it,” Powell said.

In May, a pack of killer whales sank a 50-foot yacht in Moroccan waters after repeatedly slamming into the vessel.

Orcas also interfered with a sailing race last year when a boat traveling from the Netherlands to Italy had a 15-minute showdown with the mammals. The crew was forced to drop its sails and make a ruckus to repel them.

Some studies suggest orcas are targeting boats for fun.

“It’s only a matter of time before someone shoots one of these killer whales,” Powell ominously warned.

“The fight between man and beast is going to get worse. Luckily none of us were in the water or got hurt.

“And it’s a lottery as to whether they hit you or not.”

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Orcas Sink Another Yacht: Why Killer Whales Are Attacking Boats

A yacht navigating the Strait of Gibraltar recently sank after a pod of orcas launched a dramatic attack, marking the latest incident in a series of troubling encounters with these killer whales.

Robert Powell, the British yachtsman affected, said that "these (orcas) were not playing" and described the attack as "well-organized and coordinated" in a social media post.

Powell and two other occupants of the yacht, called Bonhomie William, had to be rescued by Spanish coastguards on Wednesday 24 after orcas disabled the vessel's steering and subjected it to severe buffeting.

However, Volker Deecke, a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Cumbria, told Newsweek that there is "no evidence whatsoever" indicating that this behavior is aggressive or that orcas are deliberately trying to sink boats they encounter.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Coastguard Service said in a statement: "Yesterday evening a yacht called Bonhomme William which was two miles off Camarinal Cape between Tarifa and Barbate reported that after interaction with orcas she needed to be towed as her steering system was inoperative."

Powell and his two crew members first reached out to Spanish authorities for a tow after the initial orca attack disabled their rudder. Spanish officials began preparing the rescue boat Salvamar Enif, but Bonhomme William's crew later reported that the orcas had returned and the vessel was taking on water.

By the time Salvamar Enif arrived, Bonhomme William had sunk below its waterline, prompting the crew to deploy their life raft. Fortunately, Powell and his crew were rescued unharmed. Spanish authorities collected contaminating liquids, a radio beacon, the life raft, and other flares before transporting the crew to Barbate, having witnessed the vessel sink.

This incident follows a similar event just three months ago in the Strait of Gibraltar, where a group of orcas intercepted and sank a sailing yacht in Moroccan waters. Two crew members onboard the vessel were ultimately rescued by a passing oil tanker.

There have been theories raised by scientists, including biologist Alfredo López Fernández from the University of Santiago, that this behavior toward boats may stem from a traumatic event that changed one orca's behavior, which others have imitated. Fernández suggests that an orca injured by a vessel may have prompted its family to take revenge.

Professor Volker Deecke said: "When looking at underwater footage of the whales interacting with these boats, we don't witness the typical behavior that we would expect to see in an aggressive encounter. The whales appear extremely calm and relaxed with no signs of agitation."

"Hence, we try and avoid the word attack. There is no evidence for things like revenge or negative interpretations. Our best guess is that this is some sort of play activity and it tends to be the more juvenile animals that exhibit this behavior."

As Deecke observes, the orcas interacting with boats are usually from 3 to 15 years old, rather than very young calves.

He notes that one possible motivation seems to be targeting the boat's rudder, explaining, "When the rudder is gone, they leave the boat alone—so that seems to be the object of their desire."

However, Deecke emphasizes that the whales are not actively seeking out boats to interact with. They make contact only when yachts cross their path and do not venture out of their usual feeding areas to find and engage with boats.

Essentially, the interactions occur opportunistically rather than through deliberate pursuit. As Deecke puts it, "They engage when the opportunity arises, but they are not going out of their way to hunt down boats or sink them."

It also appears that these orcas have distinct preferences regarding the types of boats they interact with and the times of year when they do so.

"There is a very clear pattern of the types of boats that are at risk and it tends to be sailing boats and that is most likely a function of speed. Many motorboats are too fast for the whales to keep up with, whereas a slow-moving sailboat travels at a pace the whales can match."

Seasonally, these incidents are rare in winter, possibly because fewer boats are on the water, Deecke adds.

When they do occur during this time, they are typically in the northern part of the range, such as French waters and the Bay of Biscay. Activity increases in May around the northern tip of Spain in Galicia, followed by encounters along the Portuguese coast. The highest frequency of incidents in the Strait of Gibraltar usually occurs between July and September.

This pattern is closely related to the movement of bluefin tuna, the main prey for these orcas. The tuna enter the Mediterranean to spawn and then migrate through Gibraltar in midsummer, with the timing and locations of orca interactions aligning with the tuna's movements.

For sailing enthusiasts concerned about a potential whale encounter, Deeke offers key advice. "Whales are typically found between two and twenty nautical miles from shore. Simple advice to boaters is to stay very close to shore or, especially in northern Spain, keep well offshore, remain more than twenty nautical miles. If boaters adhere to this, they are reasonably safe and at a very low risk of contact."

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Let us know via [email protected].

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About the writer.

Isabel Cameron is a Science Reporter at Newsweek, based in London, U.K. She has covered a range of health topics such as oncology, mental health treatment and weight loss drugs. Isabel joined Newsweek in July 2024, after covering the pharmaceutical industry for BioPharma Reporter and Outsourcing Pharma. She holds a degree in International Journalism from City, University of London. Languages: English.

You can get in touch with Isabel by emailing [email protected] .

Pod of killer whales attacks and sinks 50-foot yacht in Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

A pod of killer whales attacked and sunk a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco, officials confirmed to ABC News.

Two people were on board the vessel when the incident occurred Sunday at 9 a.m. local time, according to Spain's maritime authority.

The nearly 50-foot yacht, named The Alboran Cognac, was 15 miles from Cabo Espartel in Morocco when an unknown number of orcas began ramming it.

MORE: Killer whales learn 'coordinated' attacks on sailboats, some observers say

The couple alerted Spanish authorities and a rescue team arrived to extricate them from the vessel an hour after the attack, though officials were unable to salvage the sinking boat.

There have been approximately 700 orca attacks since 2020, according to GT Orca Atlantica, a conservation group, and officials believe there are more than 37 orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, separating Europe from Africa.

"During the summer and autumn of 2020, interaction events began to occur between several specimens of this species and vessels, mainly sailboats, both in the Strait of Gibraltar and in the waters of the Galician coast," according to Spanish government officials. "These interactions have ranged from persistent approaches to ships, to ramming the hull and rudder, causing various types of damage, which continue today."

It's unclear why orcas attack boats, though experts hypothesize the marine mammals could be targeting vessels for sport or they feel threatened.

According to a study in Biological Conservation , a peer-reviewed journal, "sophisticated learning abilities" have been found to exist in orcas.

In June 2023, racing yachts in the Strait of Gibraltar had a close encounter with a pod of orcas, race officials said at the time.

Crew members aboard a rival pair of 65-foot yachts were on the final leg of The Ocean Race, a global sailing competition, when they reported being intercepted by killer whales as their boats approached the Strait of Gibraltar.

No fatalities were reported in the incident, according to officials.

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Dramatic video shows whale capsizing boat off New Hampshire

Two boaters escaped with their lives off New Hampshire after a whale breached and capsized their vessel in a dramatic spectacle that was captured on video, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

The boaters, who were essentially catapulted into the Atlantic Ocean when the giant mammal breached and struck the back of the 23-foot vessel, were rescued by good Samaritans, the Coast Guard said in a series of posts on X .

The incident occurred near Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, New Hampshire, it said.

Video shows the whale breaching the water and striking the rear of the boat. At least one of the boaters is seen plunging into the water.

Colin Yager, who recorded he video, told NBC News on Tuesday that after the whale breached, he and his brother picked up the boaters.

No injuries were reported, according to the Coast Guard.

“We are grateful to the good samaritans for taking such quick action to rescue these two individuals. Bravo Zulu!” it said.

The Coast Guard crew from Station Portsmouth reported the whale appeared to be uninjured, the agency said. The boat was salvaged, it added.

Antonio Planas is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Colin Sheeley is a senior reporter for NBC News' Social Newsgathering team based in New York.

Rescued at sea: After a whale sank their sailboat, Florida crew stranded in South Pacific

• A 44-foot sailing ship, Raindancer, was hit by a whale on March 13, sinking the boat in the South Pacific.
• The four people on board were adrift in a life raft and dinghy with a satellite phone and some supplies.
• Phone calls, texts and social media helped lead another ship, the Rolling Stones, to rescue the castaways in about 10 hours.

A lifelong dream sailing trip turned into a potentially life-threatening ordeal for a four-person crew after a whale shipwrecked their boat.

Rick Rodriguez, owner of the sailing ship Raindancer, and three crewmembers onboard were amidst a voyage of more than 3,000 nautical miles to French Polynesia in the South Pacific. The 44-foot cruising boat had left the Galapagos at the end of February, after passing through the Panama Canal three weeks earlier.

The crew would make it to French Polynesia, but not in the manner expected.

More than halfway to the Marquesas Islands, disaster struck: They were eating homemade pizza for lunch "when it felt like we ran into a concrete wall," Rodriguez recalled in a note posted March 14 on the Facebook Boatwatch Group .

"I heard a loud crashing noise simultaneous with a metal clanking. I heard (crewmember) Alana (Litz) yell, 'we hit a whale,' then I looked to port and saw a huge whale, and blood gushing out of the side of it as it began swimming down."

"It felt like a scene out of a movie," Litz told NBC's Today show during an interview posted Wednesday . 

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A whale of an emergency in the South Pacific

A former professional yacht captain, Rodriguez saw that the collision "opened up multiple holes (and) cracks near the stern of the boat and the water was up to the floorboards within about 30 seconds. Maybe less," he said in a post on Instagram .

About the boat, which he purchased in 2021 and had lived on, Rodriguez said, "I made attempts to save the boat but I was, unfortunately, unsuccessful."

The crew quickly gathered safety equipment, some supplies including water, emergency gear and  electronics including a satellite phone, satellite Wi-Fi hotspot and a power bank. The dinghy was launched and loaded. Rodriguez used a VHF radio on board to make a mayday call and set off an emergency beacon, he told The Washington Post .

Before Raindancer "took her last breath about 15 minutes after she got hit," Rodriguez said, the crew were in a dinghy and a lifeboat was deployed. "I’m proud of the way our crew handled the situation, and the first priority on any boat is always the safety of the crew and passengers," he said on Instagram.

Rescue mission: Wisconsin man sailing around the world rescues castaway crew in South Pacific

Now adrift, seafarers awaited rescue

Rodriguez, 31, of Tavernier, Florida, activated a Globalstar SPOT tracker, which regularly transmits its location, and continued sending a mayday call hourly on the radio, The Post reported.

Meanwhile, the crew's distress signal had been picked up by officials in Peru, who alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, The Post reported. 

A commercial ship 90 miles to the south changed course toward the castaways after getting an urgent broadcast from the Coast Guard and there were also about two dozen boats participating in an around-the-world yachting rally sailing a similar route, the Post reported.

With the crew in the dinghy and life raft, Rodriguez sent a text message to friend Tommy Joyce, a sailor whose boat was about 180 miles behind on the same route, as a safety precaution..

“Tommy this is no joke,” he typed. “We hit a whale and the ship went down.”

“Tell as many boats as you can,” Rodriguez said. “Battery is dangerously low.”

Rodriguez also texted his brother, Roger, in Miami, to let him and his mother know the situation. He also asked his brother to relay their location via WhatsApp to Joyce. 

Online lifeline helps save South Pacific castaways

Joyce also posted a note about the incident on the Facebook page for  Boatwatch , a volunteer network of amateur radio operators who search for missing boats and people lost at sea.

"It was the Boatwatch group that ended up having somebody on there who knew" a 45-foot catamaran called the Rolling Stones was the closest boat, Joyce told Today.

"I think we were about 60-65 miles away when we realized that we were the closest boat," the boat's captain Geoff Stone told Today. 

Stone of Muskego, Wisconsin, was circumnavigating the globe aboard the Rolling Stones, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , part of the USA TODAY Network.

When they learned about the boat's dilemma, the crew didn't hesitate. "It was going to take us a while to get there, but we were going to change our course," said Mark Moriarty, Stone's father-in-law, who was also on board.

When Rodriguez turned on the satellite radio and hotspot two hours later, there was a message from Joyce: “We got you bud.”

Rescue ship used beacon, coordinates for nighttime recovery

Just more than nine hours later, the crew on Rolling Stones saw the flashing light of the dinghy and rescued the castaways. As the Rolling Stones approached, they spotted a beacon and a flare and the crews communicated via radio.

"I thought for sure the hardest part was going to be locating them," Stone said. "Luckily with the new technologies ... the latest coordinates we were given was all very accurate."

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Stone, reached on his vessel on the way to an island in French Polynesia, told the Journal Sentinel the last few days have been "a real humbling experience."

"The right place at the right time to help them out was just by chance," he said. "I'm really glad and happy that we were able to do that."

Rodriguez mourned the loss of his ship, Raindancer, on Instagram, saying it "had all my belongings on it … it was my ticket to exploring the world, she was my refuge, my rock, the one place I could be where I felt myself, she was my friend, I would give to her and she would give back memories, lessons, and stories. … In the end, she was lost at sea, and left myself and the crew with one last incredible story."

Contributing: Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter:  @mikesnider .

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Killer Whales Sunk a 50-Foot Sailing Yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar

It's just the latest in a string of orca attacks on sailboats., tori latham, tori latham's most recent stories.

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Two sailors had a whale of a time over the weekend—but only in the technical sense.

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“This was a scary moment,” the skipper Jelmer van Beek said at the time. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

While that attack didn’t result in the sinking of the ship, another sailing yacht sank near the Tanger Med port in November, The New York Times wrote. The crew of that ship had to abandon the boat after a group of orcas slammed into the rudder for a whole 45 minutes. (The whales have seemingly been targeting sailboats in particular.)

Researchers don’t know for sure why the whales have been attacking boats, but they think it may be one of the ways the orcas play, the Times said—a pretty dangerous form of amusement, albeit. Others have theorized that it’s a short-term fad among the animals, or that one orca experienced a traumatic event that made it aggressive and other whales began to mimic that behavior. The incidents have become so common in recent years that sailors trade advice online about how to maneuver in the Strait of Gibraltar area, and the Spanish government issued a release that included tips for sailors.

Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

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They were almost in the middle of the Pacific with no other boats in sight. But a successful rescue was coordinated through the power of social media and modern communications, including new kid on the block Starlink.

We contacted Paul Tetlow, managing director of World Cruising Club, who is operating as “rally control” for the World ARC cruising rally. He told us that upon learning of Raindancer ‘s demise and the position of the crew, he contacted the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) who then assigned MRCC Peru to coordinate the rescue. But before the official rescue had been executed, a network of communications had quickly arisen, much of it via Starlink, and around eight ARC vessels diverted their course to assist Raindancer ‘s crew. Along the way, ARC participants aboard S/V Far were able to keep up the communications with the lifeboat using Iridium and Starlink.

Here’s what we understand about the incident. Raindancer was “13 days into a 20-22-day, 3000nm ocean crossing,” Vinny Mattiola wrote on Facebook, when the vessel was struck by a whale, which “damaged the skeg and prop strut, and the boat was completely underwater in <15mins, forcing all four crew to abandon into the life raft.” They were approximately midway between the Galápagos and French Polynesia.

Fortunately the crew were cool-headed and quickly loaded the raft with water, provisions, and emergency communications and survival equipment, and secured Raindancer ‘s dinghy alongside. Mattiola believes the crew’s Iridium GO! device, which they carried along with their SPOT tracker, was instrumental in their rescue.

Within 10 hours of Raindancer going under, her four crew were rescued and taken aboard the sailing vessel Rolling Stones . “A very quick response time,” Tetlow said. “A good achievement.” Tetlow believes Starlink adds “another layer of ability to solve problems quickly,” and that the Starlink communications probably did add to the expedience of the rescue.

According to reports, the boat’s EPIRB hadn’t worked as intended, but the US Coast Guard later confirmed that it had indeed worked, the crew just “didn’t know it.”  When we learned of Raindancer ‘s distress, we contacted Douglas Samp, USCG Search and Rescue Program Manager for the Pacific, and Kevin Cooper, Search and Rescue Program Manager, Hawaii, who were already coordinating rescue with MRCC Peru. Samp later explained, “There is no country in the world that has SAR resources able to respond 2400 miles offshore, so we rely upon other vessels to assist. RCC Alameda assisted MRCC Peru with a satellite broadcast to GMDSS-equipped vessels and diverted an AMVER (Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue) vessel, M/V DONG-A MAIA , to assist, but the Rolling Stones got there first. BZ to your sailing community for rescuing your own.”

Mattiola concluded his post: “All crew are safe and even sent me a voice message thanking everyone involved.”

We hope to share more about this story in the next issue of Latitude 38 .

*Editor’s note: Upon learning the full details of this story, the headline was changed from Sailboat Sinks After Being Rammed By Whale in South Pacific to Sailboat Sinks After Collision with Whale in South Pacific.

29 Comments

Seems the whales are trying to get even.

So glad everybody is safe! Kudos to the rescue team

It would be an interesting study to determine if there’s a correlation between whale strikes and the color of bottom paint.

A bit over the top on the title. “Rammed”? Really. Rammed implies the whale was trying to damage the boat. Do we even know if the boat hit the whale rather than the whale hitting the boat?

Exactly what I was thinking

The boat hit the whale. To say the opposite is just incorrect. Bad reporting.

The whale struck the boat. Scientists believe they associate boats in that area with whaling. Same thing happened around that area about a year ago.

This may have to go to litigation. Some say the whale was double-parked with one taillight out when the Pacific highway was busy with the World ARC Rally, PPJ Rally and other westward-bound cruisers.

It is roughly where the whaling ship Essex, which sailed from Nantucket, was sunk in November of 1820 when it was rammed/attacked by a vengeful sperm whale. The story laid the foundation for Herman Melville’s book ‘Moby Dick.’ The actual story of the sinking of the Essex is told in a great book by Nathaniel Philbrick in his book, “The Heart of the Sea.” Once again the whale didn’t get to tell their side of the story but it certainly might have included the fact that the whaling ship was out there trying to kill it. In 1820 whaling ships were starting to hunt for whales to the west of the Galapagos after major populations of whales in the Atlantic had been depleted. Moby Dick and The Heart of the Sea are both worth a read. Have a look in the Latitude 38 bookstore: https://bookshop.org/shop/latitude38

Hi John, Even if the whale did hit the boat (which is a really hard thing to determine at sea), using the word ‘rammed’ implies intent. And, except for the orca problems off of Gibraltar, and Moby Dick, I don’t think we can attribute intention to the whale. It just sounds sensational.

As for whales associating boats in that area with whaling… that’s a hard one to believe. Many thousands of boats have sailed safely through that area since whaling was banned.

Cheers, Bruce

Oh, and by the way, I thought the movie THE HEART OF THE SEA was excellent. One of the few sailing films that treated the sailing parts realistically. They were never turning the wheel to port and the ship would go starboard!

I was also thinking ? the same thing. Striking a whale that was “perhaps” (I don’t know) resting or sleeping, is completely different than rammed. That infers they were attacked.

As an aside. In their posts the crew have used the terminology that their boat hit the whale. Not that the whale hit them, or attacked them. This is verbiage used by other sailors.

It’s always heartwarming to hear that all survived. And yes, let’s not Moby Dick the whale, before we hear the whole story.

They said the whale hit the”skeg and prop strut” like they didn’t hit the whale, read the !@#$%^& message, I’m curious as to what species it was; the Galapagos islands area has a history of Orcas attacks.

The book “Survive the Savage Sea” by Dougal Robertson comes to mind. Similar situation and location aboard 43ft schooner “Lucette” in the year 1972.

I think it was reported other way round, the boat hit the whale who was sleeping on surface and crew didnt spot him.

Hope the whale is unhurt.

I hope so also??as stated above they maybe trying to get even,if so they got a long way to go

Regarding the incident and life-saving equipment referenced , can anyone remark about range instruments (existing or future planned) that can monitor/detect massive underwater objects (e.g. our beloved whales) ? I’ve crossed the seas, racing and deliveries; and such an event never occurred to me. Thanks

Everyone is so concerned about who hit who but do we know what kind of whale? Is it ok? Was it properly called in to authorities to try and see if it’s a tagged whale they might be able to check up on?

Good point! The collision must have done a number on the whale too.

One crew member saw the whale immediately after the collision, and believed it to be a Bryde’s whale. This would make sense as the species is highly sensitive to disturbances. She reported that the whale appeared to be bleeding. KP44’s are strong hulls and the area around the skeg/rudder post was caved in, which caused the vessel to sink in 15 minutes.

A sad business all the way around .

CLICKBAIT !!! The whale didn’t “ram” the boat… FFS !!

Sounds to me like the whale was surfacing from a dive and hit the propeller, which in turn, caused the damage to the fibergass where the shaft exited the hull. Using the word rammed is for publicity, and distorts the facts.

For those who wish to help the Captain and the crew in these tragic events https://gofund.me/c576a554

No insurance?

Shocking headline to catch readers but untrue. Read the skippers report- the boat collided with the whale which was seen swimming off in a trail of blood.

There is also the Theory that “Herd Bull” whales will protect their group by challenging intruders, just as large mammals on land will do.

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Sailing for Your Ears Good Jibes #82: Andy Schwenk on Surviving a Scare Andy is a longtime Express 37 sailor, Bay Area marine surveyor, and Richmond Yacht Club port captain who has truly seen it all.

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Watch CBS News

Killer whales sink yacht after 45-minute attack, Polish tour company says

By Emily Mae Czachor

November 6, 2023 / 9:58 AM EST / CBS News

A group of orcas managed to sink a yacht off the coast of Morocco last week, after its 45-minute attack on the vessel caused irreparable damage, a Polish tour company said.

The incident happened Tuesday, Oct. 31, as a crew with the boat touring group sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar. The narrow waterway bridges the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which separates the southern tip of Europe from northern Africa. 

A pod of orcas, colloquially called killer whales, approached the yacht and "hit the steering fin for 45 minutes, causing major damage and leakage," the tour agency Morskie Mile, which is based in Warsaw and operated the yacht, wrote on  Facebook in a translated post.

Although its captain and crew were assisted by a search-and-rescue team as well as the Moroccan Navy, the yacht could not be salvaged. It sank near the entrance to the port of Tanger-Med, a major complex of ports some 30 miles northeast of Tangier along the Strait of Gibraltar. None of the crew members were harmed, said the Polish tour agency, adding that those on board the sunken yacht were already safe and in Spain by the time their Facebook post went live. 

"This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us. Longtime friendships formed on board," wrote Morskie Mile. The company said it was involved in other upcoming cruises in the Canary Islands and would work to make sure those boat trips went ahead as planned.

Last week's incident in the Strait of Gibraltar was not the first of its kind. Reported attacks by killer whales that seem to be trying deliberately to capsize boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal have more than tripled over the last two years, according to data  released in the spring by the research group GTOA, which studies orcas around Gibraltar.

"Nobody knows why this is happening," Andrew W. Trites, professor and director of Marine Mammal Research at the University of British Columbia, told CBS News in May. "My idea, or what anyone would give you, is informed speculation. It is a total mystery, unprecedented." 

GTOA recorded 52 maritime interactions with orcas between the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia, a coastal province in northwestern Spain, between July and November 2020. The incidents picked up in the years that followed, with 197 interactions recorded in 2021 and 207 recorded in 2022, GTOA said, noting that the interactions mainly affected sailboats. 

Then, in June of this year, one of two sailing teams involved in an international race around the world reported a frightening confrontation involving multiple orcas as they traveled through the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar. The teams, which were competing in The Ocean Race, said the orcas did not damage their boats or harm crews, but recalled the sea creatures pushing up against and, in one instance, ramming into one of the boats. The orcas also nudged and bit the rudders, one crew member said.

Caitlin O'Kane and Kerry Breen contributed to this report.

Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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