A killer whale investigates a rudder on one of Renaud de Stephanis' experimental boats.
Killer whales are ramming boats for fun, scientists say. A new report offers ways to protect mariners | CBC Radio LoadedThe consensus among an international group of killer whale experts is that these whales are just playing a game and having fun, and the best way to avoid an attack is to keep on moving.Killer whales are likely ramming boats because they’re bored and having fun
"They don't care if it's a sailboat or motorboat. They look for the rudders to break them," said de Stephanis, a biologist and president of the Spanish conservation group CIRCE. "They just push it with their head until they break it and that's it.", at least 673 boats have reported being rammed by this pod of whales near Spain since 2020.
The report concludes that the whales' behaviour is playful, and suggests several ideas on how to stop it for the safety of the whales and humans alike. "I was just worried that the funnier people found it, the more the mariners who were being targeted would get angry.""They're not attacking the boats, they're playing with the boats," he said.The governments of Spain and Portugal called the meeting in February in part to see if scientists could figure out alternative solutions for mariners to evade the whales without causing harm to the animals.
"What's happened in recent years is that the abundance of bluefin tuna has increased substantially and, as a result, the whales are spending less time foraging, and they have, essentially, more time on their hands to get involved in other behaviours," said Ford.This summer, de Stephanis and his team from CIRCE are testing different mitigation techniques on several boats near the Strait of Gibraltar to see if they can repel the whales.
Until these methods are commercially available, the report suggests the best thing for concerned mariners to do is to keep on moving if they see the killer whales nearby.
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