{"id":211908,"date":"2025-10-14T08:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211908\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T08:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:36:14","slug":"killer-whales-young-family-rescued-after-pod-of-orcas-attack-their-yacht-off-coast-of-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211908\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer whales: Young family rescued after pod of orcas attack their yacht off coast of Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A terrified young family has been rescued from the ocean after their yacht was attacked by a pod of killer whales.<\/p>\n

Three children, aged 8, 10 and twelve, and their parents were forced to abandon the vessel in a life raft.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest alarming incident in a series that has ocean-goers on high alert.<\/p>\n

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Experts believe the same pod of orcas could be behind the attacks, four of which happened in the same week in September.<\/p>\n

Killer whales have been causing mayhem off Europe\u2019s Iberian Peninsula since 2020, with hundreds of vessel ramming incidents off the coast of Portugal, Spain and Morocco recorded.<\/p>\n

In this latest attack, the family were forced to make an SOS call after a frightening run-in with the orcas as night fell, leaving their vessel damaged and taking on water off the coast of Perniche in Portugal.<\/p>\n

They were later picked up by a nearby fishing vessel and eventually winched to safety by a Portuguese Air Force helicopter in an overnight mission on Friday.<\/p>\n

Lisbon\u2019s maritime search and rescue picked up the distress call and sent the Air Force helicopter, a naval frigate and a lifeboat to rescue the group.<\/p>\n

Alongside dramatic footage of the rescue posted on social media, the air force confirmed details of the incident writing, \u201cOvernight last night, October 10, the Air Force EH-101 Merlin helicopter was activated to rescue five people who were on board a vessel sailing more than 50 kilometers from Peniche.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sailboat, carrying a couple and three children, was attacked by a group of orcas, who damaged the boat leading it into the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the incident, the five people abandoned the boat using a life raft, being later picked up by a fishing vessel that was nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family, understood to have been travelling from the French town of Lorient, was taken to hospital for medical checks before being discharged and receiving consular assistance.<\/p>\n

A number of other incidents of orcas ramming boats have been recorded recently, including four incidents where people had to be rescued in the same week in September, Metro UK<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

On September 15, four people had to be rescued from a boat 10 nautical miles off Lisbon, two days before that five people were on board a yacht that sank close to the Fonte da Telha beach and that same day, what is believed to be the same pod of orcas rammed another boat off the Bay of Cascais.<\/p>\n

Last year authorities issued a warning for sailors to beware after a boat was sunk off Morocco.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn orca moves along the rudder of the Team JAJO entry in The Ocean Race on June 22, 2023, as the boat approaches the Strait of Gibraltar. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

It was not known how many orcas were involved in that attack, however, some reports pointed to it being the work of a notorious pod led by a killer whale dubbed White Gladis by locals.<\/p>\n

Some believe White Gladis could have been teaching other whales how to attack and sink boats after she experienced a bad interaction while pregnant several years ago, either after being struck by a boat or getting caught in a net.<\/p>\n

However, a group of experts tasked with determining what was causing the whales to strike rudders and how to stop it, last year found that rather than trying to hurt people, the orcas just wanted to have fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis looks like play,\u201d said Naomi Rose, a senior scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute who was part of the working group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very dangerous game they\u2019re playing, obviously. But it\u2019s a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

In most cases, the scientists found, the orcas approaching the vessels come from a group of about 15, mostly juvenile, whales.<\/p>\n

They typically approach slowly, almost as if to just bump the rudders with their noses and heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the behavior of the animals that suggests that they\u2019re being aggressive,\u201d said Zerbini, who was also part of the working group.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they play with the rudder, they don\u2019t understand that they can damage the rudder and that damaging the rudder will affect human beings. It\u2019s more playful than intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A terrified young family has been rescued from the ocean after their yacht was attacked by a pod…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323,3275],"class_list":{"0":"post-211908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife","12":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}