SPECIAL REPORT

The first signs that something odd was taking place came in July 2020. After the strangest start to a summer any of us can remember, just as Europe began to open up to sailing once again, there were reports from Gibraltar and the Spanish Atlantic coast of orcas apparently attacking yachts.

One of the earliest incidents involved a Hallberg-Rassy 36, which was being sailed to southern Spain by a delivery crew from Halcyon Yachts. “Our crew had just set off from A Coruña and were a couple of miles offshore when the crew suddenly felt the wheel being ripped out of their hands,” Peter Green of Halcyon Yachts explained. The yacht was later taken under tow, but the impacts from the orcas continued, snapping the tow rope. When the yacht was lifted ashore there were clear bite marks on the hull and the rudder was split in two.

Although such incidents sound almost unbelievable, a clear pattern soon began to emerge. Spanish naval yacht, , lost part of its rudder after orcas appeared to bite at the stern of the yacht – which the crew captured on video. Within six months, there had been around 40 such incidents reported.