“Brutal Attacks”: Three killer whales sink a Swiss yacht in the Mediterranean

Last week, three killer whales sank the Swiss yacht “Champagne” off the coast of Gibraltar on the night from Thursday to Friday. The killer whales destroyed the boat so badly that the crew had to flee. Soon after, the yacht thanks.

The boat should start a journey from Tenerife to Benalmadena in southern Spain the following day. But near Gibraltar, where the crew had targeted to refuel, they suddenly felt a violent rumble, Zurich skipper Werner Schaufelberger told “yacht.de”. “At first I thought we had rammed something,” he says. “But then I quickly realized that it was killer whales that attacked the ship.”

The crew then tried to raise the alarm. Another yacht was about 200 meters away, which they tried to contact with light signals via searchlights and a radio call. But she drove on without responding.

So the crew contacted the port of Tarifa in southern Andalusia, Schaufelberger reports. The Coast Guard responded and advised to remain calm. The orcas didn’t let you off the boat afterwards either. The attacks were “brutal”, the skipper describes. “There were two smaller and one larger orca. The two little ones shook the rudder at the back, while the big one kept running and then rammed the ship from the side with full force. »

After about 90 minutes, the crew noticed that two holes had opened through which water was entering. So it quickly became clear that one had to leave the “Champagne” quickly. The Coast Guard then sent a helicopter and a rescue cruiser to rescue the four crew members from their plight.

First the helpers tried to save the boat. Shortly before the coast, however, it became clear that the project would fail. The water had risen so high that the yacht eventually sank.

In recent years, orca attacks on boats have increased significantly. Why the marine mammals do this is unclear. Some researchers suspect that the animals would use this to perfect their hunting technique. Another theory is that the attacks are just some kind of game for the animals. And other researchers suspect that it could be a result of the coronavirus pandemic: after the closure and the interim calm in the sea, the animals could become stressed by the increasing noise and defend themselves in this way. (dab)