Orcas attack more and more often. In Portugal, two more boats were targeted

On Saturday afternoon off the coast of Portugal, two boats were damaged following interactions with a pod of orcas. None of the passengers were harmed, but one yacht was destroyed and sank. This is yet another case in recent years. Why do orcas attack boats? Scientists defend the behavior of the black-and-white predators.

An unlucky weekend for Portuguese sailors

Five people were sailing along Portugal’s Costa da Caparica coast when they were suddenly attacked by a pod of orcas. Luckily, a tourist boat was nearby, and its passengers immediately noticed unusual commotion on the yacht’s deck. Thanks to the quick rescue, all five people were saved, but the yacht itself sank. Representatives of the Portuguese maritime authority, who arrived at the scene a bit later, reported that all participants were in good physical condition and that the vessel had been escorted to the port of Oeiras.

That same afternoon, orcas attacked a second boat near the Bay of Cascais. Four people were on board, and they managed to alert local rescue services and the Lisbon port authority. In this case too, another tourist boat came to the rescue, safely transporting the passengers ashore.

A scenario that repeats itself more and more often

This is not the first time that orcas have attacked small vessels off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula. In 2022, the black-and-white mammals sank a tourist boat about 11 km from the town of Sines. The five passengers managed to escape in panic using a kayak. That same year, four more people were forced to abandon a sinking yacht near Viada do Castelo after orcas destroyed its hull.

In January 2025, two Norwegians who had come to the Portuguese coast to watch dolphins called for help after orcas tilted their boat 90° and damaged the rudder. On 30 August this year, a pod of orcas destroyed a traditional wooden boat near the Ria de Arousa delta in Spain and damaged another one, also off the Galician coast.

According to the GT Orca Atlántica (GTOA) organization, more than 800 similar incidents have been recorded since 2020 – all in the Strait of Gibraltar, the western Mediterranean, the coasts of Portugal, western France, and northern Spain. In about 20 percent of these cases, the damage to boats is very serious and often leads to sinking; in the rest, orcas primarily target the rudder.

Do orcas attack for fun?

Marine biologist Naomi Rose from the Animal Welfare Institute in the United States believes that the unpleasant incidents for sailors over the past five years are not driven by malice. These are not attacks. They are most likely a form of play, she argues, pointing out that orcas seem mainly interested in breaking the rudder.

According to Rose, if these intelligent mammals truly intended to attack and sink humans, the outcomes would be far more tragic. While following schools of tuna, orcas seem to engage in a kind of game between meals, without any deliberate hostility.

Unfortunately, the regularity and frequency of these encounters may indicate that orcas have turned this play into a sort of tradition. These highly social predators are known to pass down habits from generation to generation. Sinking boats may well have become one of them.

Both sailors and environmentalists are concerned – sailors demand protection from the predators, while conservationists stress that the Iberian orca population is endangered, and open conflict with humans could further harm them. And since the targets are boats rather than people, it is difficult not to ask whether our presence at sea has long since overstayed its welcome.

---

main photo credit: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen/Unsplash