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WATCH: Two Ocean Race boats attacked by killer whales in Gibraltar
The boats were sailing off the coast of Gibraltar as part of a round-the-world competition
Two teams competing in the The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint had a “terrifying” encounter with a pod of orcas, which bit and pounded their rudders as they were sailing the Atlantic Ocean west of Gibraltar.
The latest killer whale attack near the Rock, which is known the world over for incidents between boats and these enormous marine mammals, occurred on the afternoon of Thursday June 22 as Team JAJO and Mirpuri Trifork Racing battled it out in the final stages of the round the world sailing competition.
“20 minutes ago we got hit by some killer whales,” Jelmer van Beek, the skipper of Team JAJO, reported. “Three killer whales came right at us and started hitting the rudders. Killer whales are awesome to see, beautiful animals, but it’s also been a dangerous time for us as a team. We took the sails off and we slowed the boat down as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they were gone… It was a scary moment.”
Both teams notified Race Control in Alicante of the incident but luckily there were no injuries or damage to the valuable boats, despite the fact that they were jostled around quite a bit by the whales.
Orca encounters have become all too common in recent years with countless sailors left drifting off the Gibraltar coast when the overzealous mammals smash their rudders. For a long time, scientists believed the so-called attacks were down to curious or playful youngsters, but recent research suggests that killer whale mothers may be using ships to teach their calves how to hunt.
Last week, passengers aboard a Fred. Olsen ferry travelling between Gran Canaria and Tenerife were horrified when their ship ploughed into a sperm whale, killing the cetacean.
Image: Ocean Race
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