Another killer whale attack causes Brit’s yacht to be ‘thrown around like a rag doll’ off the coast of Gibraltar

A British sailor has revealed how killer whales tossed his yacht ‘like a rag doll’ off the coast of Gibraltar as experts hope tracking killer whales could help prevent attacks amid a surge in boat collisions.

Captain Iain Hamilton, 60, has been stranded in a harbor near Gibraltar for a few days after his boat, the Butey of the Clyde, was wrecked with both rudders by a pod of five whales.

He said the marine mammals performed a “choreographed” attack on the boat, but he believes they “played with the rudder and inadvertently put the boat very vulnerable and in a very dangerous situation.”

It comes as the number of ships rescued by Spain’s Salvamento Maritimo has almost doubled so far this year compared to all of 2022 – with 24 sailing ships towed into the Strait of Gibraltar.

Experts now hope that by tracking killer whales with GPS tags, they can prevent these attacks, which Hamilton said “the scale is much bigger than people thought.”

Another British sailor shared his experience of a whale chasing his boat last year as it sailed from Gibraltar to Cape St. Vincent, Portugal (file image)

The British sailor revealed his ordeal on BBC Radio 4, saying that if the whales had wanted to completely destroy his boat, they would have been more than capable of doing so.

‘I sailed 20 miles west of Gibraltar, saw a fin, then noticed a slight bulge and then a very large bulge and looked around and there was a very large whale pushing down the back and trying to bite the rudder.

“To begin with there was one big whale and four smaller whales and they just bumped into it and then one of them managed to take off one of the rudders that the boat has two.

“Then we lost the second rudder, so we had no mechanism to steer the boat and the whales were in charge of the boat and they pushed us around like a rag doll.”

Mr Hamilton speculated that a larger female whale may have led the attack, while four younger killer whales joined in the pursuit of the boat ‘almost like synchronized swimming’.

“If you’d been in a playground or something, you’d have loved it,” he said, “then maybe I had a different thought.”

A whale swims next to a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar last month. British sailor April Boyes shared the footage after her yacht was attacked

About 60 orcas live in Spanish waters, with a concentration off the coast of Galicia and in the Strait of Gibraltar, where most of the recent attacks have taken place.

Mr Hamilton said locals had told him about 20 recent attacks near the small fishing village, where he is now waiting for his boat to be repaired.

After Friday’s attack, he said, another wrecked boat — an 60-foot catamaran — came into port, and now several await repairs.

With attacks mounting, the sailor said, “I think it’s only a matter of time before the insurance companies say ‘you’re not insured’, which will have an impact on the local industry.”

Mr Hamilton and others have called for boats to help evade the mighty beasts, and now the Spanish government has unveiled a new GPS tagging scheme.

One of the mammals has already been tagged, Spain’s Environment Ministry said, with the non-invasive GPS device embedded in its dorsal fin.

Six whales, which have been found to have previously interacted with boats, will be tagged.

Information sent from the tag allows the approximate locations of whale pods to be tracked and mapped weekly, making it easier for sailors to avoid the area they’re in, Olive Press reports.

It comes after reports previously suggested that at least 20 orca attacks on small craft took place in the Strait of Gibraltar in May alone.

Another British sailor, April Boyes, expressed her fear of being surrounded by killer whales that attacked a boat taking them from the Azores to Gibraltar last month.

Speaking to This Morning, Ms Boyes, 31, described the scary encounter with killer whales, which rammed into the ship relentlessly for more than an hour off the coast of Spain.

A four-man crew was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when a Spanish rescue vessel and a helicopter raced towards them in the middle of the night.

British sailor April Boyes told how she endured a night of terror after her yacht was wrecked by killer whales that rammed into the ship relentlessly for more than an hour off the coast of Spain

In May, it emerged that a female killer whale named White Gladis, believed to be traumatized by a boat collision, may be responsible for a number of attacks after teaching other killer whales how to attack ships.

Scientists believe that White Gladis is taking revenge on boats by coaching killer whales, which have already sunk two yachts.

They believe a “critical moment of agony” — in which White Gladis may have collided with a vessel or become entangled in illegal fishing nets — led to her aggression against boats.