There has been a very recent report from the Shetland Islands of a sailor, a Dutch sailor, who had one animal come up to the aft of his sailing vessel. He reported that the animal was pushing the hull or raiming the hull a few times. And he was scared obviously, and the animal very quickly lost interest in the boat again and disappeared. I don't know what to make of this observation. So far it's one incident with one animal. We cannot rule out that killer whales from the British Isles have been swimming in the area with the Iberia and the sea. It's not possible to say if this behavior is spreading, not yet.
Since 2020, orcas off the coast of Spain and Portugal have been ramming boats, biting rudders and, in a few cases, sinking entire vessels. Now it has been reported that a similar encounter has happened off Shetland. Madeleine Finlay speaks to marine biologist and orca expert Hanne Strager about what might be behind these incidents and where our fascination with orcas comes from This podcast was amended on 27 June 2023. An earlier version contained audio of the calls of a humpback whale, not an orca. This audio has now been removed.. Help support our independent journalism at
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