Column SFF Bestiary When Orcas Strike Back In 2020, something strange started happening off the coast of Spain… By Judith Tarr | Published on July 7, 2025 Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen [via Unsplash] In 2020, something strange started happening off the coast of Spain. Orcas were attacking boats and in some cases sinking them. Most of the boats were sailing yachts, 30 to 50 feet (9 to 15 meters) long, and the orcas tended to aim for the rudders, though they were also chasing after boats and ramming them. These attacks have continued for years and run up in the hundreds. They’ve occurred as far south as the northern coast of Africa and as far north as the Shetland Islands. They’re still happening. What is going on here? In spite of their nickname, killer whales, and their role as apex predators who can take down a great white shark, no wild orca has ever been recorded attacking, let alone killing a human. One speculation, that they’re taking revenge on humans for damaging their environment, doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. If that’s what they’re doing, why aren’t they going for the humans instead of their boats? Orca experts have a couple of theories. They’ve identified three pods that have been going after boats, the largest of which is led by the matriarch Gladis Lamari. These orcas’ territory is centered around Gibraltar and up toward the Bay of Biscay. One possibility is that the matriarch was in labor and in pain, and a yacht just happened to be there when she needed to take it out on something. Which is fine as a one-off, but how did it blow up into hundreds of attacks, multiple attackers, and no apparent end in sight? Orcas learn by observation. If one does something, the others will imitate her. That still doesn’t explain why ramming boats and breaking rudders became a years-long habit, game, crusade, whatever it is. Maybe it is a game. Many of the perpetrators appear to be on the younger side. Are the teenagers wilding? Is it an initiation rite? A hazing ritual? A contest? Are they going after rudders as part of the game, because they’re these mobile objects sticking out of the bottom of the boats and offering a convenient target? Orcas are highly intelligent and extremely social. We’ve discovered that they use tools. A population of orcas on the other side of the world from Gibraltar, the Southern Resident orcas of the Pacific Northwest in the Salish Sea, have been observed using stalks of bull kelp to massage one another’s skin. They play games with kelp, too, draping it over their heads and playing keep-away with fronds, but this kicks it up a notch. An orca will insert the stalk between itself and a podmate of any age or gender and wiggle and rub back and forth. They seem to be using it to exfoliate. Tool use is one of the indicators of high intelligence. There’s something else, too, that’s catching the attention of orca experts, and it’s maybe the most remarkable thing we’ve seen. Over the past couple of decades, orcas have been known to offer food to humans. It’s not restricted to a single pod or regional population. It’s happened all over the world. Orcas will approach a human in the water or in a boat or even on the shore, and offer a piece of fish. If the human refuses, they may repeat the offer. It’s not accidental. It’s clearly intentional. Is it altruism? Attempt to communicate? Manipulation of some sort—trying to train the human? Are orcas trying to make some sort of connection? Orcas share food with each other within their pods. It may be they’re trying to invite humans into their world or their culture. Maybe it’s a peace offering. A form of diplomacy. An experiment—to see what the weird little land animal will do next. Maybe the attacks on boats aren’t attacks. Maybe they’re attempts to communicate. They may be trying to get the boats to join in a race or a game of tag. Orcas will grab each other’s fins with their teeth; if one of them is sick or injured, they’ll pull her up to the surface and support her there, and keep her from sinking back down. Maybe they’re grabbing rudders to try to get the boats’ attention. What it’s not reading as, to experts who understand orcas (as far as humans can at this point), is hostility. The boats may be doing something that sets the orcas off, either in play or in some form of annoyance or frustration, and it’s probably become a fad of sorts to chase and ram them, but it’s not about the humans. They’re not out to get revenge on the species that’s burning up the planet. In fact, when they do interact directly, it seems they come in peace, and bearing gifts.[end-mark] The post When Orcas Strike Back appeared first on Reactor.