Orca interactions with small boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal are expected to stop as the marine mammals mature, according to one of the marine scientists studying the cetaceans’ behaviour.

Published 2 years ago

Source:  Yachting Monthly

Yachting Monthly magazine reports that one of the scientists studying Orca interactions with small sailing yachts off the Iberian Peninsula believes their behaviour will stop once the marine mammals mature.

Alfredo Lopez says the Orca are displaying learnt behaviour but ‘it is a behaviour that should tend to become extinct as orcas assume different roles than they currently do, given that most of them are juveniles.’

According to the Center for Whale Research, male Orcas reach sexual maturity at around 25 years of age; females attain sexual maturity in their early teens.

Lopez is part of Groupo Trabajo Orca Atlantica (GTOA), a group of Portuguese and Spanish marine scientists who have been studying the Orca interactions since they began in 2020.

He said there are at least 16 orcas belonging to various groups of the same sub-population which are interacting with boats, many of them young, and it was ‘unlikely’ that their behaviour could spread to other groups of Orca, although not ‘impossible’.

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Related News:

• Orca Interactions with boats ‘expected’ to stop (Yachting Monthly)
  
• Second Sailing Boat Sinks after Interaction with Orca (Portugese Resident)
  
• Se hunde frente a Viana do Castelo un velero francés tras una interacción con orcas (La Voz de Galicia)
  
• Boat sinks after Interaction with Orca (Marine Industry News)
  
• Noonsite Orca and Yachts page (for more news and links).

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Related Links:

• Cruising Association Orca Interaction Report Form
  
• RYA Orca (Killer Whale) Guidelines (RYA)
  
• Atlantic Orca Working Group
  
• ICNF Recommendations Not to Approach Orca
  

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