Thirty killer whales viciously attacked a Dutch family's yacht off Portugal's coast, just several weeks after a similar attack involving orcas.
According to the Independent, the incident happened during a trip between Porto and Lisbon when orcas "violently" attacked the boat early in the morning and dealt notable damage to the vessel. As the boat filled with water, the family barely managed to reach shore.
No one was hurt, including the whales, and authorities took the boat in for inspection. Just a few weeks prior, a family with young children suffered a similar attack and was rescued by the Portuguese Air Force at night.
These attacks follow several others in September, when three orca attacks were reported in a single week. Thirteen people were rescued from the group of boats, one of which sank, according to the Independent.
July saw more of the same, with an orca pod attacking two boats in Spain and Portugal and a group of whales charging a separate vessel.
Because of the frequent events, experts encouraged the public to be vigilant and to know what actions to take if they encounter orcas. Some of the advice included lowering the sails and turning off the boat's engines as well as other loud equipment, such as autopilots and echo sounders.
Staying in shallow water is also advised since it makes it more difficult for orcas to ram boats.
The strange phenomenon has puzzled scientists and boaters, who believe that the whales are simply egging one another on without any obvious motive behind the boat ramming other than play or exploration. However, as reported by Interesting Engineering, the animals may also engage in aggressive behavior to defend their territory, protect their young, or respond to environmental stressors such as warming oceans and food shortages.
"Some populations may also develop unusual and temporary behavioural 'fads' and other idiosyncrasies that do not appear to serve any obvious adaptive purpose," leading marine biologist Alex Zerbini, chair of the scientific committee at the International Whaling Commission, said last year in a statement, per the Independent.
Although some of the orcas' and whales' behaviors may be explained by social adaptations, this remains concerning because it can endanger both them and people. If warming waters caused by the changing climate are to blame, it's important to do what we can to conserve resources and protect their ecosystems from further harm.
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In a Portuguese news outlet Correio da Manhã interview, per the Independent, one of the members of the boating accident said: "We were sailing at night. Suddenly, we felt our boat moving violently."
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