Two boats have been attacked by a pod of orcas off the coast of Portugal.
A video of the marine mammals hitting a yacht was captured. The attack disabled the boat’s rudder and damaged the hull, sinking the vessel, The Times reported.
"I saw the sailboat moving erratically. Then I realized it was being attacked by an orca,” dolphin-watching tour skipper João Filipe told Notícias ao Minuto newspaper.
He said it was a quick attack, lasting only about two minutes, and only two or three hits. In about an hour, the boat had sunk near Caparica. Four people on board needed rescuing.
A second boat, a sailboat, was hit by orcas near Fonte de Telha. It also had a broken rudder, but was able to stay afloat and was towed to a port.
Five people were on board that boat.
No one was hurt in either attack, CBS News reported.
They were the latest in a series of attacks over the past few years in the water near the Iberian Peninsula, including two boats that were hit near the coast of Spain two weeks ago, The Times reported.
The research group Orca Ibérica GTOA said there have been hundreds of incidents from 2020 to 2024 where pods of orcas hit, pushed and sometimes flipped boats, CBS News reported.
Some marine biologists believe the whales are attacking boats because of boredom or they need physical stimulation, The Telegraph reported.
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