Walter Finch
SHIP captains in the Strait of Gibraltar are kitting their vessels out with sharpened rudders in order to harm killer whales that may approach their boats.
The extreme measure is being taken after a string of interactions with the critically endangered Iberian orca in recent years that have seen some boats damaged and even sunk.
Some members of the pod have taken up the habit of targeting a boat’s rudder in order to disable it, the ones who are doing so being designated ‘Gladys’.
But just this weekend, a French boat in dry-dock in Barbate marina was filmed by conservation group Sea Shepherd with blades attached to the rudder ‘to injure orcas that approach.’
READ MORE: Crew pulled out of sea after killer whales sink UK-registered yacht off Spanish coast
Despite informing the local maritime authorities, the boat is back on the seas.
It has long been feared that sailors might start taking aggressive reprisals against the creatures, which could seriously threaten the existence of the pod.
Orcas are considered an endangered species and are protected under Spanish and European Union law, which makes it illegal to harm them.
Penalties for doing so include hefty fines and even possible jail time, depending on the severity of the harm caused and the circumstances surrounding the incident.
However, the sharpened rudders are a ‘grey area regarding this type of equipment,’ according to Sea Shepherd.
“Our legal team is working on a complaint for ‘attempted destruction of a protected species,’” the group added.
The group also emphasised that orcas are not aggressive towards humans and the interactions with them in the Strait have been anything but attacks.
“As we recently showed in several videos of our boat surrounded by 15 orcas, these majestic beings show no signs of aggression.
“Large, curious and playful cetaceans… whose damage, if any, is due more to their size and strength than to their desire to harm anyone.
“As a reminder, no human being has ever been injured by an orca in the wild, ever.”
The development comes as the whales sank another yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar last week.
Travelling under the British flag, all three crew members of Bonhomme William, which had set sail from Gibraltar, were taken to Barbate by a Maritime Rescue vessel.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at Tarifa was radioed by the crew saying their craft was inoperable after several whales hit it some two miles off Punta Camarinal.
At the start of July, the ‘Kelba’ had to be towed to Ceuta after five giant whales attacked it.
A yacht was sunk in May when the ‘Alboran Cognac’ was attacked some 14 miles from Cape Spartel, in Tangier.
The two crew members were rescued by an oil tanker sailing to Gibraltar, with their vessel left adrift after the rudder broke and a leak broke out due to the whale collision.
Also that month, the sailboats ‘Malaika’ and ‘Galaxia‘ had to be towed to Barbate due to damage caused by whale attacks.
I’m not a vindictive person but I really hope that whomever was responsible for this decision is charged with murder when a crew member on such a vessel falls overboard in a stormy sea, and is shredded by the same blades.
Orcas area completely harmless. They are, however, inquisitive.
Orcas are known as killer whales for a reason.
Yes indeed, there are many species of insects and animals that could be labeled as “killers”. The lesson is simple: leave them alone, don’t interfere with their habitation and then they are no longer potential ” killers”.
In any case, the methods being employed to “ward off” these “killers” is not specific and could easily injure or kill many other varieties of sea life.
These are not fluffy disney characters but apex predator animals, trying to hunt the boats. This behaviour is different to previous, not well understood and totally possible that if sailors fell into the waters, the orcas would eat them (multiple interviews with sailors on these boats confirm the pre meditated aggression of the orcas). It’s no different to a rogue pack of wolves that attacks walkers in the mountains – you can’t just ignore it because they’ll get a taste & habit for hunting humans which they’ll teach their young.
These orcas, as animals, definitely need retraining: hopefully it’ll just be one or two shallow and quickly healing cuts from these blades, then they’ll alter their behaviour. If not reeducated, their behaviour will become more dangerous.