HOW TO NAVIGATE 'ORCA ALLEY'

In the last three years, orcas have started 'attacking' yachts on their way through the Gibraltar Straits. James Kenning looks at how to minimise the risk

- James Kenning

There is a new buzzword amongst cruisers heading in and out of the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar… orcas! Wind, tide and shipping are no longer the only planning considerations in making passage through the Straits; it is avoiding an encounter with the family of Iberian orca that have developed a taste for sailing boat rudders.

This issue is largely isolated to this geographical area and the distinct orca population of 50 or so animals that live there. However, shortly before we went to press reports came in of a yacht being repeatedly rammed by an orca near the Shetland Islands, over 1,500 miles away. This remains a one-off at the moment, though over the years there have been a number of reports of orcas interacting physically with yachts. The thing that has alarmed sailors off the Iberian peninsula is the frequency and severity of the interactions in a trend that is very recent.

The first series of interactions between yacht and orca, where the cetaceans make purposeful and damaging contact with boats, were recorded in the post-COVID sailing season of 2020. Initially it was thought ‘unlucky’ to be the victim of one of these rogue interactions (or ‘attacks’ depending on your point of view) where the orca would deliberately target the rudder of a transiting sailing boat.