Orcas sink yacht off Portugal

[YesIsail]

Plenty of mishaps with orcas happen just in front of Barbate (south Spain) and in front of Tarifa where the local red tuna fishermen have for decades competed with the orcas for the big tuna.

The fishermen in Barbate know the reason why orcas have turned against sailors, but they will definitely not come forward with their methods of having the upper hand when competing with such marine mammals.

Guns, harpoons, etc. Like always... Big red tuna is a lot of money and orcas are not worth anything from their simplistic approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EnukC2UH-Q

[double u]

just musing:
if another boat/vessel would start ramming your boat, would you, as a last ditch measure, resort to firearms?

If an orca...

[YesIsail]

I think information is key.

Why would you want to sail in the position where orca attacks happen, and why not sail either closer or further to shore?

The "autoridad maritima" in Spain has very clear information where this attacks happen, you just need to read it to limit any possible encounter.

Orcas are where the big tuna are, at least in the South of Spain.

If another boat would ram into mine with the the intention of sinking mine, I would resort to any means necessary from the first moment but if an orca would attack my boat I would first adopt a calm approach, shut down the engine and explore any possible means, also notify authorities which are only a couple of miles away, send warning signals to other boats. I would not shoot the orca so close to shore knowing I can easily get towed back to port because first of all I do not want such sentient animal to part and second because if I shoot/injure one, things can get even worse.

If I was in the middle ot the Atlantic and was attacked by an orca, things would be different and I would consider almost any method for saving my boat and life.

Originally Posted by double u

just musing:
if another boat/vessel would start ramming your boat, would you, as a last ditch measure, resort to firearms?

If an orca...

[SV Tom Crean]

So I did that passage (west coast portugal/spain) last year and first checked where the Tuna fishing boats were. Figured that's where the majority of the Orcas would be and so I waited until they were out of the way. I also sailed either well inshore or 100+ miles offshore. I've since heard that staying inshore doesn't prevent attacks as the Orcas are hitting boats very close to the coast.

Originally Posted by YesIsail

I think information is key.

Why would you want to sail in the position where orca attacks happen, and why not sail either closer or further to shore?

The "autoridad maritima" in Spain has very clear information where this attacks happen, you just need to read it to limit any possible encounter.

Orcas are where the big tuna are, at least in the South of Spain.

If another boat would ram into mine with the the intention of sinking mine, I would resort to any means necessary from the first moment but if an orca would attack my boat I would first adopt a calm approach, shut down the engine and explore any possible means, also notify authorities which are only a couple of miles away, send warning signals to other boats. I would not shoot the orca so close to shore knowing I can easily get towed back to port because first of all I do not want such sentient animal to part and second because if I shoot/injure one, things can get even worse.

If I was in the middle ot the Atlantic and was attacked by an orca, things would be different and I would consider almost any method for saving my boat and life.

[Troy H]

Originally Posted by SV Tom Crean

Here's a couple of photos of a new Amel 50 that got hit off Gib in June. Both rudders chopped off by one of two Orcas (about 4m long). The boat was sailing in about 25kts and the impact threw the Amel around 90 degrees.

No water intrusion and the steering still worked ok - in fact the boat turned around and sailed back to La Rochelle and had two new rudders installed.

Holy. Crap.

[Franziska]

We sailed casually from France to Portimao this summer. So far no problems.

In the Ria next to Finisterre we were approached by something in dense fog which we think might have been Orcas.
No interaction.

Between Cascais and Sines there was an interaction on a boat few miles ahead of us and we sailed to Sesimbra instead of Sines at the time.

There is an active WhatsApp group with about 300 members where new sightings are shared in near real time.

https://linktr.ee/orcas.portugal

Someone mentioned the idea to look where the Tuna trawlers are. I do think that this is a good thing to do.