The Cruising Association (CA) is hosting a free webinar for members and non-members entitled ‘Orca and Yachts: Fact, Fiction and Fear’.

It’s next Thursday 18 May 2023, at 1900 BST. Anyone can attend, but must register in advance.

The CA says it is committed to sharing knowledge and enhancing research on the phenomenon of orca interactions along the Iberian Peninsula. The webinar will be presented by John Burbeck, member of the CA regulatory and technical services group (RATS) and lead of the orca project group. He will share insights on the current understanding gained from orca experiences in 2022 and 2023.

As well as sharing advice on staying safe and risk reduction (including deterrent measures), the webinar will look at orca behaviour, interaction data and analysis, and how to report an interaction or uneventful passage.

As previously reported in MIN, since 2020 there has been a new pattern of behaviour within a population of orca that feed on and follow the migration of tuna exiting the Mediterranean from the Strait of Gibraltar and heading West and North around the Iberian Peninsula.

Beginning with a few specifically identified juveniles, the behaviour of bumping/ramming the hulls of small yachts and damaging rudders has expanded to other juveniles and adults. Data gathered by the CA in 2022 shows that around 73 per cent of yachts reporting an interaction were damaged and that around 25 per cent (one third of the damaged yachts) had to be towed to port. Two were so badly damaged they sunk, with no crew harmed and all rescued.

Read about these and more via MIN’s whale archive which contains reports of interactions with whales around the world.

This situation is of great concern to cruising sailors located within or transiting through the affected area, says the CA, and there is only limited evidence-led advice available to help. In collaboration with Grupo Trabajo Orca Atlantica (GTOA), a group of Spanish and Portuguese scientists who have been studying the behaviour of the orca for some years, the CA has assisted with, and expanded, the existing study with its wider access to the boating community.

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