Yacht sinks after latest incident involving orcas in strait of Gibraltar ( www.theguardian.com )

An unknown number of orcas have sunk a yacht after ramming it in Moroccan waters in the strait of Gibraltar, Spain’s maritime rescue service has said, in the latest in a series of similar incidents involving the animals.

The vessel, Alboran Cognac, which measured 15 metres (49ft) in length and carried two people, encountered the highly social apex predators, also known as killer whales, at 9am local time on Sunday.

The passengers reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder before the boat started taking on water. After alerting the rescue services, a nearby oil tanker took them onboard and transported them to Gibraltar. The yacht was left adrift and eventually sank.

The incident is the latest example of recurring orca rammings around the Gibraltar strait that separates Europe from Africa and off the Atlantic coast of Portugal and north-western Spain. Experts believe them to involve a subpopulation of about 15 individuals given the designation “Gladis”.

ReallyKinda ,

Good praxis

Feathercrown ,

lmao

Sabata11792 ,

We should arm the orcas.

nulluser ,

... with frickin laser beams attached to their heads!

Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
@Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

Nature is healing

HuddaBudda ,
@HuddaBudda@kbin.social avatar

Evolution adapts to multiple problems at once.

A pod of orcas that vigorously defend their food supply, get to eat, and train their offspring to also defend their food supplies.

Orcas that don't, either die off, or adapt to a different food source.

Thus why climate change is becoming a problem as nature is adapting to food sources becoming less abundant.

and wildlife becoming unfriendly or inedible to adapt to the changes.

SpaceNoodle ,

I hate it when wildlife becomes inedible

Daft_ish ,

Can confirm, this wildlife is not sitting well.

GregorGizeh , (edited )

My only worry with this is that we start hunting them to eradicate or at least contain a threat, like we do to most wild animals who could potentially, perhaps, maybe, harm a human intruding on their habitat and territory. Like wolves in europe, we carefully reintroduce them after almost eradicating them entirely, they do what wolves do and prey on some livestock here and there, and people immediately ask for them to be culled.

fritobugger2017 ,

We have likely killed most of their normal food sources

SlopppyEngineer ,

That's basically the intro from The Swarm

AbouBenAdhem , (edited )

The vessel, Alboran Cognac, [...] encountered the highly social apex predators

The highly social orcas were clearly aware that the only true Cognac comes from the Atlantic coast, not the Alboran Sea.

TransplantedSconie ,
@TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee avatar

They have acquired the taste for the sweetest of man-flesh.

I wish them well on their hunt.

dmtalon ,

From all the reports I've seen so far, they are in fact not attacking humans, just the boats. Unless this has changed.

TxzK ,
@TxzK@lemmy.zip avatar

too bad. I thought they were literally eating the rich

TransplantedSconie ,
@TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee avatar

Give them time. They haven't figured out how to open the can yet.

Bakachu ,

I just read that as well. Or there's just no witnesses. Also read something that they stop attacking if the boat stops.

dmtalon , (edited )

Well I'm interested in this world (sailing/ living on a sailboat) so I've been following fairly close. I don't believe there's any known non aggressive way to stop them. Stopping hasn't been shown to help that I've heard/seen

tiefling ,

Good orcas

lettruthout ,

My spirit animals.

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