“From the pile of odds and ends that still rattle around in my head; “The Hundredth Monkey Effect”

I saw on the news tonight that a family of Orcas spent some time in and around a West Vancouver marina to the delight of onlookers. It’s a relatively new behavior and was first reported In British Columbia in 2022. Since then, there have been several more “visitations”, including one with a Kayaker in North Vancouver reported just 7 hours ago.

I know what you’re thinking, “What does this have to do with monkeys?”. Well, back in the 50s a team of Japanese monkey researchers conducted an experiment that supposedly led to a startling observation.
Here’s the Wikipedia summary:

“The hundredth monkey effect is an esoteric idea claiming that a new behavior or idea is spread rapidly by unexplained means from one group to all related groups once a critical number of members of one group exhibit the new behavior or acknowledge the new idea. The behavior was said to propagate even to groups that are physically separated and have no apparent means of communicating with each other”. (See where I’m going with this?)

In 2020 Orcas started attacking sailboats around Spain and Portugal. Just yesterday a woman was injured in such an attack off the coast of Spain. There have been a few theories as to what’s causing the attacks but nothing definitive yet.

The Hundredth Monkey effect has been fictionalized and debunked. The idea that a “collective consciousness” could exist appealed to the youth of the late 60s and early 70s but lost traction in the information age. Even so, I’m going to keep my eyes out for more local encounters. You never know, maybe the critical number of European boat trashing Orcas just hasn’t been reached yet…

The orcas have struck again — this time ramming a sailboat off Spain’s northwest coast, rescue workers said on Tuesday.

A pod of orcas damaged the rudder of a sailboat, leaving its two-person crew stranded in the waters off Cape Finisterre Sunday, according to an emailed statement from the rescue workers. It is the latest in a string of attacks by pods of orcas swimming around the Iberian Peninsula.

While the sailboat, the Amidala, did not sink, pods of orcas have sunk several vessels in recent years. Researchers still do not know whether the attacks are playful or malicious, but a new theory based on studying the troublesome pods of orcas suggests that they could be using the boats as practice targets for new hunting techniques. Other competing theories still exist.

Regardless of the orcas’ intentions, the behavior is enough to worry sailors journeying in the highly trafficked waters around North Africa, Spain and Portugal.

The Amidala, manned by a crew of two Belgians, encountered an unknown number of orcas on Sunday afternoon. They sent a mayday distress call to the Finisterre Maritime Rescue Center, which towed the vessel back to shore, the center said.

The sailboat’s damaged rudder, and poor weather conditions in the area, made the rescue more arduous, with waves reaching up to nearly 10 feet and winds hitting speeds of 40 miles per hour. A female crew member on the Amidala suffered injuries to her hand as the sailboat was being towed, and she was transferred to a rescue vessel, the rescue center said. After more than four hours, the Amidala made it back to shore.

In recent years, sailors have shared tips about how to stop orca rammings, or at the very least deter them. Deterrents include painting the hull a different color. Another tactic is to blast heavy metal music, or to scatter sand into the ocean. There’s also an app that tracks orca activity in the ocean, letting boats steer clear of pods.

Researchers have no definitive explanations about why orcas, seemingly in this region alone, are increasingly ramming ships. One theory suggests that the ramming stems from past traumatic encounters between orcas and boats. Some scientists think it may be simpler than that — as naturally curious and playful mammals, orcas may just be having some fun.

The other, new, theory comes from the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in Spain, which has been tracking the orca ship rammings since 2020. It has found that orca pods off the coast of Spain, who migrate in the waters between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, have developed a taste of Atlantic bluefin tuna, according to a paper the institute will publish next month.

That species of tuna can grow up to 10 feet long and move at speeds that orcas can’t always catch, at least not without training, said Bruno Díaz López, the institute’s chief biologist. Sailboats are often the ideal size to train on — they move quickly and silently, and close to the water’s surface, not unlike the orcas’ prey.

Researchers studying the ramming incidents have found that it is mostly young orcas who go after sailboats, but sometimes adults appear to be teaching younger members of the pod how to do so. The orcas have also figured out that the rudder is soft enough to bite, and that fiberglass makes for good ramming, Mr. Díaz López said.

“This is like a training toy,” Mr. Díaz López said. “It’s a shame that we humans are in the middle of this game, but they are learning.”

They’re practicing hunting 10ft Blue Fin Tuna? Oh well humans need practice with chop sticks before they can properly eat tuna sushi.

Maybe something nice and soothing? I’d beat the hell out of something with that playlist permeating my neighborhood.

The whales are pissed at the noise source in my opinion. It’s painful.

Heavy metal didn’t stop these orcas from rocking the boat.

In the wake of orcas seeming to attack boats around Portugal and Spain, sailors are turning to unorthodox tactics in an attempt to deter them.

One piece of advice going around is to blast heavy metal music underwater to keep orcas away. But a marine mammal researcher warns this is a bad idea ― and one crew seems to have learned this the hard way.