They sea an opportunity for shenanigans.
For the last four years, a small band of orcas have been raising hell off the Atlantic coasts of Europe by ramming into nearly 700 vessels and making some sink, according to the Washington Post.
Now, a new report highlights the most probable reason why these killer whales dangerously ram into boats — especially off the shores of Spain and Portugal — at an alarming rate.
They’re simply teens goofing around.
“The sea is a very boring place for an animal,” researcher Renaud de Stephanis, president of Spain’s Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre Cetáceos, told USA Today.
“Imagine if you’re a dog or some other mammal, you can interact with objects around you. But in the sea there’s not much for the orcas to interact with, so they play with the [boat] rudders.”
And since the young regional marine mammals “have time on their hands,” they’ve turned the act of jutting rudder pieces loose into an aquatic sport, said expert Alexandre Zerbini.
“We think the orcas are getting something out of it, they are enjoying what’s happening. They’re playing,” he said.
“Obviously, they don’t understand that that play can mean harm to the boats.”
Why have the adolescent whales only started doing this recently? Turns out they’re really into fads.
It’s in the orcas’ nature to follow trends, especially for the younger ones for short durations of time, according to Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute.
She cited that whales in the late 1980s would bizarrely carry salmon on their heads just because others were doing the same.
However, she says the current stunt greatly shows off their intelligence more than anything else.
“It’s a very sophisticated thing to do something for no purpose other than that it amuses you,” said Rose, adding that it’s become a seasonal enjoyment when boaters are most in the water.
“It starts in the spring, goes way off the charts in the summer and goes away in fall.”
One way for boaters to address the whale of a problem is to drape stringy protuberances from their rudder, according to de Stephanis.
It works because the strands resemble jellyfish, which the orcas despise.
