Here be monsters (Orcas sinking boats on purpose)

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Effective pack hunters, exhibit some sophisticated co-operative behaviour.

I remember watching this.



A quick google, they can be six tonnes and 26 feet long apparently, Great whites are about 20 ft and two tonnes max just for comparison.

Same family as dolphins so intelligent too.

Hopefully, it is just a fad as the article mentioned.

From wiki.

“Some local populations are considered threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution (by PCBs), capture for marine mammal parks, and conflicts with human fisheries.

In late 2005, the southern resident orcas, which swim in British Columbia and Washington waters, were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.”
 
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Hornbein said:
The article says they are destroying rudders, the sinking is a side effect that happened in a few cases.
The rudder is the most fragile part of most sailboats. The rudder is sometimes attached only to a metal tube that passes through the hull and is sometimes not well supported. A collision might easily bend the tube and disrupt the seal which is sometimes hard to access to repair a leak. Even keels can be suspect especially when there is too much optimism in new technology used for support/mounting/fastening and it is pushed too far.

Why the orcas have an interest in the boats is interesting. I wonder as some suggest that the particular orca had some experience with one resulting in an interest. A sailboat's underwater shape is very fish-like some more than others. Since orcas like shark livers could this "attack" be due to the fact the size, shape, and color resembled a great white? I would be interested in the color of the underwater hull since white or gray might make it look like a shark.
 
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gleem said:
The rudder is the most fragile part of most sailboats. The rudder is sometimes attached only to a metal tube that passes through the hull and is sometimes not well supported. A collision might easily bend the tube and disrupt the seal which is sometimes hard to access to repair a leak. Even keels can be suspect especially when there is too much optimism in new technology used for support/mounting/fastening and it is pushed too far.

Why the orcas have an interest in the boats is interesting. I wonder as some suggest that the particular orca had some experience with one resulting in an interest. A sailboat's underwater shape is very fish-like some more than others. Since orcas like shark livers could this "attack" be due to the fact the size, shape, and color resembled a great white? I would be interested in the color of the underwater hull since white or gray might make it look like a shark.
Possible they are teaching their young where to bite a shark to get its liver using a ship that doesn't bite back. More likely IMO (given their intellect) maybe someone in the family got hit because the sail boats are quiet, and they are simply "fed up" retaliating against a perceived threat.