Spain: Sailors Shoot Endangered Orcas!

2023-08-20 08:08:15

OceanCare criticizes incident as unacceptable and scandalous!

Madrid/Vienna/Zurich (OTS) – Over the past two years, reports of orcas, also known as killer whales, interacting with boats, particularly sailing ships and yachts, have accumulated. It has been reported several times that isolated animals attacked the oar blades of the boats and caused them damage. A behavior that also puzzled numerous scientists. As has become known today from reports in the Spanish media, there was already an incident on Thursday, August 17th, in which a sailing crew shot at orcas. The international marine protection organization OceanCare describes this incident as unacceptable and scandalous and expects legal consequences.

“The potentially fatal injury and use of force once morest endangered orcas is nothing short of scandalous. However, the incident also shows that the media has a special responsibility not to portray the orcas’ behavior as violent or as a form of revenge once morest humans. There is no evidence for such an interpretation, it is probably more of a game that orcas find attractive. It is imperative that we prevent people from feeling threatened by orcas and from reacting violently in this way.” says Carlos Bravo, Ocean Policy Expert at OceanCare, on site in Madrid.

“It’s really important that people understand that the very specific way in which boats interact with rudder blades is a behavioral phenomenon unknown anywhere else in the world. Orcas have never attacked humans directly in the wild. We’re not on their menu”says Mark Simmonds, Director of Science at OceanCare.

Those orcas that have documented such behavior are members of the “Iberian population,” which numbers fewer than 50 animals. This population is listed as “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The Spanish authorities are already active. OceanCare commends the Spanish police’s special unit for combating environmental crime (SEPRONA of the Guardia Civil) for promptly identifying and interrogating those responsible. It is not known if an orca was killed or fatally injured in the incident, which took place near Tarifa in the Strait of Gibraltar. However, there is video footage from a whale-watching boat that documents sailors shooting at the orcas on several occasions.

Due to the small number of adult animals and the fact that the whales depend on another critically endangered species for prey (the Atlantic bluefin tuna), the status of Critically Endangered was established. The orca population also has very low juvenile numbers and may continue to decline. Chemical pollution might adversely affect their reproduction, and like other whales and dolphins in the Northeast Atlantic, these animals face many negative human-caused hazards, including noise, plastic pollution and bycatch. Orcas are also listed as an endangered species in the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species (CEEA), so any action aimed at killing, capturing, hunting or disturbing them is absolutely forbidden.

Some time ago, OceanCare published recommendations on how to behave if you encounter those orcas. Read here:

Questions & contact:

Nicolas Entrup, Head of International Cooperation, OceanCare, [e-mail], M: [phone].

Carlos Bravo, Ocean Policy Expert, OceanCare Spanien, [e-mail], M: [phone]

Mark Simmonds, Head of Science and Marine Mammal Expert, OceanCare, [e-mail], M: [phone]

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