Emily Chan
Off the coast of Morocco, a group of orcas attacked a yacht sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar. The orcas damaged the vessel so badly that it later sank, leading to an emergency evacuation for the two people who had been on board.
The passengers were about 14 miles north of Cape Spartel in northern Morocco when the incident occurred.
At around nine in the morning on May 19, they felt blows to the hull of the 50-foot Alboran Cognac. Afterward, they saw that the rudder had been damaged, and water started leaking onto the ship.
They contacted the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Tarifa, Spain, and were told to ready themselves for an emergency rescue.
An hour later, an oil tanker that was in the area picked up the two passengers, who were customers of Alboran Charter, a boat rental agency based in Spain, and the owner of the yacht.
Soon after their rescue, the yacht sank. It is unknown exactly how many orcas were involved in the incident. The Alboran Cognac has not been the only victim of orca attacks in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Last spring, the marine mammals sank the Champagne, a Swiss yacht, off the coast of Spain. In addition, they wrecked a Polish sailing yacht called the Grazie Mamma in November.
This type of behavior has been going on since 2020. Overall, 700 interactions between orcas and ships have taken place in the strait.
Within the last three years, the Alboran Cognac has been the fifth vessel that orcas have sunk. The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Less than 50 orcas swim in its waters.
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