5 orcas attack yacht in Portugal at once: incident caught on video
In Portugal, a pod of five killer whales attacked the yacht Oxygene, which was sailing to the French coast. The story was shared by experienced 70-year-old yachtsman Fep Filouseros.
According to The Mirror, the huge killer whales tore off the yacht's rudder and the sailors had to send a distress call.
Fep Filouseros says that when he was sailing off the coast of Cape Vincent in Portugal, heading for Rouillan, France, he was accompanied by a group of five killer whales. Suddenly, the pod began its attack. He captured it on video.
According to him, however, one of the killer whales attacked the rudder of the vessel and damaged it within a minute. Then the man heard the hull of the boat crack.
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Fep Filouseros says the yacht was sailing in water depths of about 25 metres. Within 15 minutes of the incident, the rescue boat reached the scene of the attack, but even then, the killer whales did not stop their attacks. They attacked the yacht and the rescue boat.
The sailor said he had heard stories that killer whales had started attacking ships, so he equipped the yacht with devices to deter predators, but the attack was so fast that he did not have time to use the acoustic underwater pingers.
Fep said he tried to stop the engine or reverse to stop the attack, but neither worked. He said: "The steering wheel was destroyed in one minute and ripped out. They also struck the double keel of the boat. There were five killer whales in total, but only two attacked the boat."
"I think they were young killer whales.... They were neither adults nor calves. The attack was not too violent. The boat was moving, it was rotating, but it didn't capsize. If the killer whales really wanted to sink the boat, they could have done it easily. I don't think that was their intention," the yacht owner added.
Earlier, scientists said that killer whales are attacking boats more often and have begun to teach their offspring to do so.
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