I looked killer whale White Gladis in the eye as she tried to sink my boat – now I know exactly why she’s on the rampage
SAILING serenely towards Gibraltar on calm waters, skipper Ian Hamilton was thinking about his first pint in nine days when he saw a fin in the water and felt a thump from behind.
Chasing his 50ft-long yacht was a group of four killer whales that has been apparently attacking seafarers for at least three years.
Ian, from Edinburgh, had plotted a course away from the coastline in order to avoid this notorious pod.
But there was no escape.
Switching on the engines to speed away only riled the orcas, and trying to steer away from danger almost ended up with him being knocked into the Mediterranean.
Ian tells The Sun: “I stupidly tried to steer initially when I heard them hit. I held the wheel and tried to keep control of the boat, but they pushed the rudder, and that moved the wheel violently.
“I got heaved off the wheel, and the power that came through flung me in the boat.
“If they had flicked it the other way, I could easily have been in the water. That was the scariest moment.
“While these animals are magnificent, I wouldn’t fancy swimming with them in case they weren’t in a playful mood.”
During the 90-minute ordeal last Friday, the four orcas ripped both rudders from Ian’s vessel and proceeded to spin the 21-ton boat around like a child’s toy.
The businessman, who was sailing from near Glasgow to Barcelona with four pals for his 60th birthday party, got his emergency grab bag and lifeboat ready, fearing they could sink.
‘Any minute they could have bashed through’
He believes the assault on his boat, the Butey Of The Clyde, was being co-ordinated by a 25ft-long mother orca, named White Gladis by those who’ve encountered her displeasure.
Ian felt the highly intelligent predators, which have never killed humans in the wild, were staring back at him as they approached.
He recalls: “At one point they went under the water and I thought, have they left?
“Then they appeared about 100 metres away, all in a line.
“They slowly cruised in a slow row towards us and I thought, are they going to ram us now?
“These animals are hugely intelligent. If you look at them, it kind of spooks you.
“It’s like they are looking at you straight back.
“I felt at any minute they could have bashed through and the boat would have sunk.”
It is believed that since 2020 more than 500 boats have been damaged by orcas off the coast of Spain and Portugal — with three being sunk.
And it is not just one rogue pod. There are three groups, one in the Strait of Gibraltar and two to the north and south of Portugal, all displaying similarly strange behaviour.
But thanks to coastguards, no one has yet perished.
In May, a Swiss yacht was holed by orcas in the Strait, while in November a French vessel sank after being struck close to Viana do Castelo in northern Portugal.
Last August, the huge creatures smashed the hull of a tourist boat six miles from the port of Sines, further south along the Portuguese coast.
The mystery is why orcas, who normally give humans a wide berth, are now ramming sailing vessels.
A team of researchers is monitoring the pods to figure out the reason for their terrifying behaviour.
No one is sure whether the killer whales, which are known to hunt great white sharks, are attacking the boats or merely playing with them.
Danny Groves, from charity Whale And Dolphin Conservation, says: “Despite them being described as attacks, it is not clear what is behind these interactions, and what these orcas are doing remains baffling.
“But we do know they are super-smart, and incredibly socially and behaviourally complex.”
Some believe the orcas, which belong to the dolphin family, are taking revenge on humans for taking too many of the fish they eat.
British sailor Alan Bruce, who was rammed by killer whales in Gibraltar in August 2021, said: “We’ve been over-fishing their waters, and now it’s payback time.”
One scientist speculated that White Gladis could be acting as a result of a previous troubling incident.
Alfredo Lopez Fernandez, a biologist from the Orca Atlantic Working Group which is studying the encounters, said: “That traumatised orca is the one that started this behaviour of physical contact with the boat.”
But so far the only time an orca has killed a human is when they have been held in captivity.
Ten years ago, documentary film Blackfish suggested that at least four people have been killed by whales which became unhinged by being trapped in pools for tourism.
But Ian does not think the orcas wanted him for lunch. He explains: “I genuinely don’t think they were attacking — I think they were playing.
“When they took the rudders off, they started spinning the boat around, so they put one animal at the front and the other at the stern and they turned us around like a plaything.”
The experienced sailor, who has seen orcas before in Scotland, knows that if the animals wanted to sink his boat they could have done so.
Instead, Ian wonders if the mother was teaching her young. He says: “With the amount of coordination, she was almost training the youngsters.”
‘Idiots say we need to shoot them. That’s stupid’
Others agree that White Gladis is the ringleader.
Stephen Bidwell, 58, from Cambridge, was on a 22-ton steel boat that was rammed for almost an hour in May in the Strait.
He said: “A clearly larger matriarch was definitely around and was almost supervising.”
And whale expert Danny Groves suspects Ian might be right.
He says: “This could well be a play or learning behaviour, rather than anything to do with aggression.
“There is a theory that this is just a phase that will fade out at some point.”
The advice when faced with such unpredictable beasts is to switch off the engine and take down the sails.
Ian’s experience supports that theory.
He says: “To begin with, I turned on the engine and tried to move away quickly. That definitely agitated them.
“Then we killed the engine, killed the sail and just played dead, which calmed them down.”
Other sailors have proposed ridding the route of these magnificent creatures, which appalls Ian.
He says: “I did hear some idiots say we just need to shoot them.
That’s absolutely stupid. Perhaps there is a sonar beep to discourage them?”
The truth is that humans are more of a threat to orcas than they are to us.
The one pod in British waters faces extinction, with pollution from industrial chemicals known as PCBs, believed to be the cause.
Danny explains: “These are critically endangered creatures. The UK’s only orca pod, located off the west coast of Scotland, is down to single figures thanks mainly to pollution in the sea.
“In 20 years of study, there has not been a single recorded birth in the pod, and it is therefore likely it will become extinct soon.
“Scientists fear other orca pods in Europe may face a similar fate if the long-term effect of PCBs continues to impact on their ability to breed.”
Ian’s prized boat is now in a small port on the Spanish coast waiting to have its rudders repaired, having been towed in by the coastguard.
The morning after coming face to face with the powerful pod, a catamaran was hauled in having suffered a similar fate.
Ian says: “We came across three other boats in this small marina that had been attacked.”
He is still planning to go ahead with his party in Barcelona, and the repair bill will be paid by insurance.
He concludes: “They are magnificent animals.
“If they weren’t chewing my boat, I would have thought it was wonderful.”