{"id":50408,"date":"2024-05-14T16:45:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T16:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/orcas-sink-another-boat-near-iberia-worrying-sailors-before-summer\/"},"modified":"2024-05-14T16:45:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T16:45:17","slug":"orcas-sink-another-boat-near-iberia-worrying-sailors-before-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/orcas-sink-another-boat-near-iberia-worrying-sailors-before-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Orcas Sink Another Boat Near Iberia, Worrying Sailors Before Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/14\/multimedia\/14xp-orcas1-zhqv\/14xp-orcas1-zhqv-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Orcas Sink Another Boat Near Iberia, Worrying Sailors Before Summer\" title=\"Orcas Sink Another Boat Near Iberia, Worrying Sailors Before Summer\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Summer is on the way, meaning that the orcas are out to play near the Strait of Gibraltar \u2014 which is bad news for sailors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two people were rescued on Sunday after an attack by a group of orcas caused enough damage to sink their boat, according to the Spanish maritime rescue service. It was the fifth such sinking in waters off the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Alboran Cognac, a sailing yacht about 50 feet long, was approached by the animals on Sunday morning, some 14 miles off Cape Spartel in Morocco, the rescue service said. Crew members onboard reported that the animals had slammed the hull, damaged the rudder and caused a leak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A nearby oil tanker quickly maneuvered toward the boat and evacuated the two sailors, who were taken to Gibraltar, the rescue service said. The boat was left adrift, and the Moroccan authorities reported that it eventually sank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It\u2019s the first boat to sink in those waters this year after an orca-related mishap. A group of orcas that traverse the Strait of Gibraltar and nearby waters has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/05\/24\/world\/europe\/orcas-sink-boats-spain.html\" title=\"\">plagued sailors and intrigued marine biologists<\/a>, who are studying the population. Since 2020, orcas have disrupted dozens of sailing journeys in these high-traffic waters, in some cases slamming vessels hard enough to cause critical damage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last November, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/07\/world\/africa\/orcas-sink-yacht-gibraltar.html\" title=\"\">orcas slammed a yacht\u2019s rudder<\/a> for 45 minutes, causing its crew to abandon the vessel, which sank near the Tanger Med port.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group is more likely to appear in the busy lanes around the Gulf of Cadiz and the Strait of Gibraltar between April and August, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miteco.gob.es\/es\/prensa\/ultimas-noticias\/2024\/mayo\/miteco-y-mitma-ofrecen-recomendaciones-a-los-navegantes-en-caso-.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the Spanish government said<\/a> in a news release, and sailors have spotted some of the orcas there in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Researchers do not know why the pod is targeting boats, but they have theorized that the behavior is a form of play for the curious apex predators. The interactions have become so frequent that they are now a multinational issue, involving scientists and officials from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Online, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/15\/world\/europe\/orcas-attacks-boats.html\" title=\"\">anxious sailors have gathered<\/a> to share advice on navigating \u201corca alley,\u201d and biologists are tracking the orcas\u2019 movements and testing methods that could deter them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the event of an orca encounter, the government advised in its release, boats should not stop but instead head toward shallower waters near the coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the number of incidents may be declining: Researchers at the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orcaiberica.org\/en\/interacciones-registradas\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Atlantic Orca Working Group<\/a> said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrcaIberica\/posts\/pfbid032fEwbnvo4MWmxPs5Xs84KT1csiy943HEvVC3bfQ9sD8fMQvBYefkmtNoc89xucDSl\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">on Monday<\/a> that the number of orca interactions with boats between January and May had dropped some 40 percent, compared with that of similar periods in the past three years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/14\/world\/europe\/orcas-sink-yacht-strait-of-gibraltar.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summer is on the way, meaning that the orcas are out to play near the Strait of Gibraltar \u2014 which is bad news for sailors. Two people were rescued on Sunday after an attack by a group of orcas caused enough damage to sink their boat, according to the Spanish maritime rescue service. It was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/14\/multimedia\/14xp-orcas1-zhqv\/14xp-orcas1-zhqv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16797,50538,2236,29358,20537,8971,4568],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50410,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50408\/revisions\/50410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}