Orcas continue to attack boats and yachts off the coast of Spain, Portugal, and into the Strait of Gibraltar.‌ A pod led by matriarch 'Gladis' or 'White Gladis' has been ramming boats, biting rudders, and even sinking ships - three have gone down since the first attack was recorded in May 2020.‌

Interactions between human vessels and orcas have been increasing, and since then over 500 interactions have been reported.‌ Many theories have been put forward by marine biologists and others‌.

Some think that it's revenge, others that they're just playing, or using the rudders to train the young to hunt tuna, others still that it is a cry for help.‌

"They are trying to tell us something"

CGTN correspondent Ken Browne traveled to southern Spain to hear from locals.‌ Maria Dolores Iglesias - or 'Dori' as everyone calls her locally - has spent three decades on these seas with the orcas, as a guide and conservationist.‌

"Orcas have always been a source of union and synergy with mankind," she begins‌. "I've spent 27 years living alongside them and they are the ones in danger: If they knew how to put out an SOS - they'd do it.‌"

"They have found a human weakness in the rudder and they are trying to tell us something, with these attacks on the rudder they are saying: 'You are hurting me, taking my territory.'‌"

Iberian orca subspecies numbered only 39 the last time a full census was done in 2011, they are critically endangered.‌ Dori suggests a traumatic event may have triggered these attacks.‌

Gladis' grandmother was captured in Galicia, they killed her by harpooning her eye and she died days later.‌

"That happened in 2020, and since then these attacks have happened. Have they organised them? I don't know. Are they upset? It's pretty clear they are, you would be too.‌"

"But I don't think this is about hate," continues Dori.‌

"if it was motivated by hate then with their size and strength they could have taken revenge on a lot of humans, it's the people who harpooned her that did wrong here - whatever the circumstances were, firecrackers were thrown, they hurt her."

Four people rescued from sinking ship after orca attack‌

In early May global headlines followed the sinking of the 'Alboran Champagne' after a coordinated orca attack. Its crew of four were rescued by the Spanish coast guard.‌ That sailing ship was recovered from the seafloor and now stands in the 'Marina Seca' or, boat yard, in Barbate where it's being repaired.‌

'The Mustique' stands across from the Alboran Champagne, another sailing ship that almost suffered the same fate but was towed to shore in time.‌

Keen sailor April Boyes was on board and posted videos on her Instagram account which immediately went viral and were reported globally.‌

She later deleted the original post and wrote this:‌ "I haven't spoken to any media about this but they have all the stories from my instagram. The reality is far less sensational. We were a professional crew, no one was screaming and no one is traumatized by the event, all crew are well.‌"

"We sailed from the Azores to Gibraltar and as we reached the strait we saw a pod of Orcas, we turned off the engine and waited, they started to bump into the rudder continuously for over an hour and after making a Pan Pan call which escalated to a Mayday they managed to remove the rudder from the boat."

In the shipyard in Barbate, bite marks are fresh on the rudder of another small craft, the 'Anne' and the orcas tore the rudder clean off another boat. But not everyone believes these orca attacks are motivated by trauma or a type of revenge.‌

Marine biologist Jose Carlos Garcia tells CGTN that:‌ "According to what I can observe I think this behavior against boat rudders is a way to teach and train younger orcas to hunt red tuna."

"But why attack sailboats and not other ships? Well because a sailboat is the perfect training tool for them since the rudder looks and moves from side to side just like tuna's tail and not up and down like a whale would do for example."

So what can be done to protect both the orcas and the livelihoods of the fishing communities on the tuna migration way?‌

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has issued guidance to protect the orca population. This includes suspending permits to crafts travelling to the area, with exception to ones working in local activities such as official cetacean-watching tours. There are also no more private boats taking people out, which many people were doing before.

"We have coexisted alongside orcas for thousands of years so a peaceful coexistence is possible, what we have to stop doing is hurting them. They are not robbing anything, this is their home," says Dori.

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Cover image: Orca killer whale near a ship rudder/CGTN Europe