Killer Whale Attacks Leave Two More Boats Crippled

Killer Whales otherwise known as orcas have been attacking sailing boats off the coast of Spain with increasing regularity this week.

Pods of orcas followed one of the two sailboats they damaged on separate incidents in the same morning in the region where a British vessel suffered the same fate just days ago.

The accident was filmed off the coast of the Spanish town of Cedeira, located in the autonomous community of Galicia on Monday 14th September.

The first boat, called ‘Amadeus’ was reported damaged by two French nationals shortly after midnight when they were attacked by killer whales (Orcinus orca) which damaged the boat’s wheel.

The second incident was called in about three hours later, this time by Spanish sailors, after their vessel ‘Urki I’ also reported damage making them unable to steer the boat.

One of the videos shows the moment a person in the Spanish sailboat stands near a railing filming the large animals near the boat and says “Damn” when one lifts its head out of the water.

A second video shows a sailor navigating across the ocean as a large killer whale swims next to them. It’s large fin can be seen popping in and out of the water as the whale apparently has no problem keeping up with their speed.

The Red Cross ‘L.S. Lagosteira’ boat was in charge of towing both sailboats back to safety and all four crew members from both incidents were unharmed.

Authorities have informed sailors of the presence of the killer whales and warned to stay away from them given recent attacks in the area which were previously uncommon.

A British vessel boarded by British man Justin Crowther and two Finnish nationals reported a similar attack six miles off the coast of Cape Prior located in the same region on Friday 11th September. They were towed into the city of A Coruna and were also unharmed in the incident.

An additional two boats have been damaged in orca attacks in coasts off of the Galician coast including another French sailboat and a Spanish Navy sailboat called ‘Mirfak’.

Captain of the Mirfak Candido Jose Couselo Sanchez spoke with Newsflash and said: “It seemed like they were playing around, but the rudder was broken so we had to change port to get it fixed.

“The killer whales left us alone when the rudder was floating in the water after being broken. We were fortunate because it was only partially damaged and we were still able to sail to the nearest port.”

He added the orcas “are like big dogs, they play and hit things, often breaking them.”

There have been no injuries reported from any of the incidents.