Orca Team Six: whales engaged in coordinated attacks on commercial shipping
Their leadership calls them Orca Team Six. Pods of killer whales are creeping up on merchant ships, disabling their rudders, and forcing captains to press pause mid voyage. Revenge is sweet.
Maritime authorities on both sides of the Iberian Peninsula have watched a precise pattern emerge: orcas approaching from astern, focusing on rudders, and working in small groups as if on a shared task. Scientists prefer careful words, yet even the cautious are using phrases like social learning and coordinated behavior. The animals linger for minutes, touch, push, and sometimes disable steering by bending or breaking blades. It doesn’t look random. It looks practiced. The North Atlantic feels newly intimate.
Since 2020, the Iberian orca subpopulation has been linked to more than 700 documented interactions, according to community reporting collated by the GTOA (Grupo de Trabajo Orca Atlántica). Most events involve sailing yachts under 15 meters, yet commercial skippers—coasters, trawlers, whale-watch operators—now report close approaches, stern-circling, and hard bumps that rattle crockery. In May 2024, a sailing vessel sank near the Strait of Gibraltar after repeated rudder strikes, and smaller working boats off Galicia have had gear fouled after sudden turns to protect props. The animals seem to know where control lives.
Maritime authorities around Iberia are tracking what looks like training day behavior. Pods approach from behind, press the stern, target the rudder. Scientists whisper social learning, insurers groan rewrite the policy, and sailors mutter what the hell is that.
#TeamOrca #OrcaTeamSix