Orcas reportedly attacked and sunk a sailboat off Cape Arkona, Germany, in the Baltic Sea on March 31, according to the German website Yacht. Over the years, numerous attacks have been reported in the Atlantic off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, which resulted in damage and a number of sinkings, but this is believed to be the first documented attack by orcas in the Baltic.
According to the crew of the Baltic vessel, the killer whales attacked the yacht’s rudder, removing a large section of it, and causing a rudder post leak that quickly sank their boat. The crew members managed to send out an alert, scrambled into their life raft and were rescued by a nearby fisherman who heard the call.
It is believed that the Baltic Sea orcas are related to the killer whales off the Iberian Peninsula and that the attacks, often on sailboat rudders, are learned behavior passed from the Iberian orcas to a new generation of Baltic orcas. Here is Yacht’s full report.
