Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar

Re:Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar by nicoburns on Sunday September 13, 2020 @09:40AM (#24460769)

I heard that whales intetionally sinking ships was common throughout the whaling era, and has all but stipped since whaling was (mostly) outlawed.

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Re:Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar by luckylion on Sunday September 13, 2020 @09:55AM (#24460866)

Which has taught them: if you sink their ships, they will stop. We just need to figure out what demands these orcas have!

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Re:Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar by maxerickson on Sunday September 13, 2020 @01:49PM (#24462595)

There's apparently not many documented cases, just 2 mentioned here, with the one at the link being a whale the ship had injured:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Alexander_(ship)

Sperm whales ramming ships that attack them seems less remarkable than whales in general attacking ships during the wooden ship whaling era.

Update: The article on the Essex mentions quite a few more incidents, but still only a handful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)

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Re:Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar by ceejayoz on Sunday September 13, 2020 @10:25AM (#24461072)

Modern ships are probably harder to sink, though.

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Re:Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar by robocat on Sunday September 13, 2020 @03:13PM (#24463165)

I wouldn’t bet on that.

Modern ships can avoid obstacles using motors and navigation, and avoid storms using weather reports. Modern ships avoid sinking by technology, not strength.

Fibreglass hulls in particular are quite fragile - especially sports hulls that are designed to be lighter.

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