A group with killer whales who almost sank a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar, continued to watch his … floating “victim” even after the destruction of his rudder, which is the first incident recorded so far.

The so-called “killer whales” began to show unusual behavior in 2020, attacking ships. As of July 2020 774 incidents were registered.of which 505 involve contact between a killer whale and a boat, according to the Atlantic Killer Whale Working Group (GTOA).

After several attacks, the boats were declared unseaworthy, and more than half were sunk.

However, in most cases, killer whales lost interest in boats after their rudders broke. However, during a recent attack, on the evening of May 24, the flock continued to pursue the yacht “Mustic”even after the damage done to them.

At present, it remains unclear whether this behavior indicates a change in the nature of whale aggression against boats, or if this is an isolated case.

“They didn’t leave after the rudder was destroyed,” says April Moges, an experienced sailor who was aboard the Mustique at the time of the incident.

The crew of the boat first spotted killer whales around 21:30. “Just before they started banging on the rudder, their force was yanking it hard and we could feel the vibration on the deck,” Boges says in an Instagram post.

Check out this post on Instagram.

This post was posted by April Boyce (@april_georgina)

After the rudder was broken, the killer whales lost interest and moved away from the boat. But twenty minutes later they returned, once again surrounding the yacht. “After an hour of hitting the rudder, it was clearly damaged and the boat began to take on water,” Boyce wrote.

The crew informed the Spanish Coast Guard, who towed the vessel to the port of Barbate, Andalusia. But even then the killer whales remained, continuing to watch her. “They kept chasing us until we landed,” the sailor explains.

GTOA scientists documenting unusual marine mammal attacks off the coast of the Iberian Sea cannot confirm if new behavior is real this signals a change in “strategy”.

Spanish officials and researchers from Cetacean Conservation, Information and Research (CIRCE) plan to use satellite recorders to track the six killer whales involved in the attacks.

“Thanks to the GPS that has been or will be installed on killer whales and the prediction models, we have some variables that allow us to predict where the animals are. 100% of the attacks that have taken place between March and today could have been prevented simply with information,” says Renaud de Stefanis, President of CIRCE.

Source: live science