2023… The Year Of The Ocean’s Revenge?

The catastrophic implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submarine has skyrocketed the ocean to the top of the news cycle recently. Many people have weighed in, including James Cameron. The director of 1997’s Titanic, Cameron is no stranger to the ocean, the siren call of the Titanic, or the dangers of deep-sea exploration.

On March 26th, 2012, Cameron completed a record-breaking solo dive aboard the Deepsea Challenge. He descended 35,787 feet to the bottom of the Mariana Trench! He’s also made 33 dives to the Titanic and suggests “arrogance and hubris” played a big part in the Titan disaster.

But the ocean’s destructive forces haven’t ended there. A group of killer whales on a boat-sinking mission are also vying for attention. Here’s everything you need to know about these orca ambushes and why some have declared 2023 the “Year of the Ocean’s Revenge.”

The Year of the Ocean’s Revenge?

While a destructive pod of orcas might sound crass compared to the Titan tragedy, the killer whales have wrought severe damage. They’ve sunk three boats off Europe’s Iberian Coast and show no signs of slowing down.

Although scientists continue searching for answers, an overarching narrative has emerged. Scientists hypothesize one traumatized killer whale likely initiated the first assault on a boat. From there, other members of its pod quickly followed.

The episodes illustrate a negative example of what researchers have known about for a while, the capacity of orcas to modify their behaviors through social learning.

An Organized Assault

Reports of aggressive actions by orcas against boats navigating the Strait of Gibraltar date to May 2020. But in recent months, they’ve become more brazen and organized.

For example, one attack happened on the night of May 4th, 2023. According to eyewitness accounts, three orcas struck a yacht, targeting the rudder. Werner Schaufelberger explained, “There were two smaller and one larger orca. The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side.”

Perhaps most alarming, Schaufelberger claimed the smaller orcas imitated the actions of the larger one. Soon, all were ramming into the boat. Fortunately, tragedy was averted by the Spanish coast guard. They saved the crew and attempted to tow the yacht back to shore. But it sank at the entrance to the port of Barbate.

No More Mr. Nice Shamu

Once upon a time, most people associated killer whales with Sea World’s beloved Shamu. But the 2013 documentary Black Fish made many reassess the treatment of these marine mammals in captivity.

Now, the boat-sinking episodes have people wondering what’s next. After all, Schaufelberger wasn’t the only individual to deal with black-and-white whales bent on mayhem. A couple of days prior, six orcas attacked another vessel. Like Schaufelberger, one of the passengers, Greg Blackburn, watched a mother whale teaching her calf how to attack the ship.

And Captain Dan Kriz of Reliance Yacht Management now claims the orcas attacked his vessels twice. “I was sailing with my delivery crew through the Strait of Gibraltar delivering a yacht when I was surrounded [by] a pack of eight orcas, pushing the boat around for about an hour. We were one of the first boasts experiencing this very unusual orcas’ behavior.”

Putting Killer Whale Behavior in Perspective

Some people have sworn to take matters into their own hands. Borrowing from the Wild West, they’re gearing up to shoot aggressive orcas. But marine biologists have called for a more measured approach. They point out that most encounters between orcas and ships since 2020 have been harmless.

Alfredo López Fernandez of the University of Aveiro in Portugal provides the following stats for context. “In more than 500 interaction events recorded since 2020, there are three sunken ships. We estimate that killer whales only touch one ship out of every hundred that sail through a location.”

López Fernandez also rejects the notion adult orcas are teaching their calves to be yacht sinkers. While he admits that some youths have likely picked up the behavior by watching adults, this doesn’t decry a calculated effort. So, while 2023 has brought us stories that point to the importance of respecting the marine world, a deeper sea-based plot to punish humanity isn’t likely at the root of all the chaos.

That’s not all that’s happening in the great blue, be sure to check out all the other strange underwater happenings of 2023!

By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com