Orca Rip Huge Hole in Boat and Swim Away With Rudder in Terrifying Attack

Orcas that sunk a boat in Portugal ripped a huge hole in the back before tearing off the rudder and swimming away with it.

The French sailboat became the latest to sink on November 1 amid a spate of orca attacks in the region.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, have been targeting sailboats off the coast of Spain and Portugal since 2020. The encounters have ranged from orcas simply approaching boats to actively interfering with them. The incidents don't seem to be increasing, but they have not stopped. And in severe cases, boats have sunk.

The sailboat had four passengers aboard called Eliott, Augustin, Roman and Corentin, the Portugal Resident reported. They had been 14 miles off the coast of Viana do Castelo in Portugal when the orcas approached, the National Maritime Authority said in a statement.

"We heard a huge sound at the rear of the vessel, and the whole boat started to shake," Augustin told the Portugal Resident.

That was when the passengers realized up to six orcas were surrounding the boat.

Augustin told the news outlet that they had appeared "out of nowhere" and one began biting down on the rudder and trying to shake it.

The orcas began taking it in turns to bite down on the rudder and shaking the boat.

Scientists don't know why the orcas are interfering with boats, but it appears they are targeting the boats' rudders in particular.

"This is indeed quite unusual behavior, but these are intelligent animals, and they are capable of extensive play and also learned behavior," Kerstin Bilgmann, a conservation biologist and research fellow at Macquarie University in Australia, told Newsweek. "In the past, killer whales have, for example, worked in corporation with humans on boats to hunt other whales during the whaling era."

Augustin told the Portugal Resident that they did not call for help at first.

"We believed they would play for a while; maybe the boat would not be so damaged [...] We believed it would be over, and we would be able to assess damage. Maybe it would be nothing too much. [...] We felt we would be all right," he told the news outlet.

But as the orcas continued to bite down on the boat, they suddenly heard a cracking.

The crew then noticed a huge hole in the back of the boat, and water began to pour in. They then made a mayday call which was picked up by a nearby Swedish boat that rushed to the scene to save them.

"They were still attacking; the cracking sound of the boat was more and more now. I really understood then that they, the orcas, could have the intention to destroy the boat completely. We had to save our lives," Augustin told the news outlet.

The orcas eventually left the boat alone after the rudder had been completely ripped off from the boat. They left with one of the orcas carrying the rudder in its mouth, the Portugal Resident reported.

The Swedish boat arrived, and all crew members were saved. There were no injuries.

It hasn't been the only boat to sink after orcas attacked.

In July, orcas sank a sailboat with five people on board off the coast of Sines, after they rammed the boat.

"It is likely that it is only one particular pod of killer whales off the coast of Spain and Portugal that interacts with sailing boats as described. This is quite unusual behavior that may have been coincidentally started by one animal in the pod and then copied by the other pod members. It is important to remember that this is most likely a playful act with no bad intention by the killer whales as no humans were attacked in any of the cases," Bilgmann said.

"Cooperative play is quite common in this species and a whale would not be aware of that a sinking ship is a danger to human's lives. Continued protection of the pod and the species should be the priority, while also managing the interactions in a way that does not cause any harm to humans or the whales."