{"id":9387,"date":"2024-05-14T16:14:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T16:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalpulse.net\/?p=9387"},"modified":"2024-05-14T16:14:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T16:14:54","slug":"killer-whales-attack-and-sink-sailing-yacht-in-the-strait-of-gibraltar-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalpulse.net\/?p=9387","title":{"rendered":"Killer whales attack and sink sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar \u2014 again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A sailing yacht sunk in the Strait of Gibraltar on Sunday after an unknown number of orcas <\/span>\u00a0slammed into the vessel with two people on board and caused a water leak, officials said. Both crew members were rescued by a passing oil tanker, said Spain’s maritime rescue service, marking the latest killer whale attack in what has become a pattern in recent years.<\/p>\n
The incident happened at around 9 a.m. local time in the narrow strait between Spain and Morrocco that has become a notorious site of human interactions with pods of killer whales that, for reasons still not fully understood, ram into boats and at times even sink them<\/span>. In this case, crew members on board the SV Alboran Cognac yacht put out an emergency call for an evacuation after they encountered orcas roughly 14 miles off the coast of Cape Spartel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crew members reported feeling blows to the hull of the vessel and rudder, which was damaged by the whales, the rescue service said. The agency’s coordination center in Tarifa, on the Spanish side of the Strait of Gibraltar, helped arrange for their evacuation via the tanker MT Lascaux. The tanker was able to collect the crew members from the sinking yacht within the hour, and they disembarked in Gibraltar before 10:30 a.m. They abandoned the SV Alboran Cognac, which proceeded to completely disappear into the ocean.<\/p>\n