Killer whales ‘violently’ assault yacht carrying terrified household in the course of the evening with vessel then limping to shore in Portugal and tipping over

On Dec 2, 2025

By TARYN KAUR PEDLER, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER

Published: 10:03, 2 December 2025 | Updated: 10:15, 2 December 2025

Killer whales ‘violently’ attacked a yacht carrying a Dutch family in the middle of the night off the coast of Portugal.

The attack took place off the coast of Nazare, a municipality in the Portuguese district of Leiria, as the family were sailing from Lisbon to Porto.

Speaking to Portuguese news outlet Correio de Manha, a member of the Dutch family recalled: ‘We were sailing at night. Suddenly, we felt our boat moving violently’.

She said the yacht was being rocked back and forth at around 5am before they relised they were being attacked by orcas.

The boat was left damaged during the incident and began taking on water.

The family, however, managed to sail safely to shore before the boat capsized on the sand.

Miraculously, no injuries were reported and the vessel was taken away by authorities for inspection.

Killer whale attacks are common in the area with reports of rammings making headlines in recent months.

The orca attack took place off the coast of Nazare as the family were sailing from Lisbon to Porto. Pictured: The boat was left tipped on its side when it reached the shore

In November, a French family were rescued from their sinking sailboat after it was targeted by orcas.

The hull was breached and water flooded the cabin, leaving the rudder severely damaged.

And in September, a crew of sailors recounted how they survived their terrifying encounter with killer whales – before the same pod of orcas sank a tourist vessel nearby.

The ‘Nova Vida’ set out on a day trip to sail from Cascais, off the coast of Lisbon, to Sines when the boat was attacked.

On board were three 20-year-old Norwegians, currently planning an expedition around the world, and their captain.

Chilling video from their cockpit shared with the Daily Mail showed the 57ft boat’s steering wheels spinning as killer whales rammed the hull and rudder repeatedly just after 12pm on September 13.

The crew could be seen struggling to stand, and panic broke out as the yacht was pummelled again and again.

Elise Wurschmidt, on board at the time, told the Daily Mail the orcas pushed against the autopilot until the steering mechanism broke in two.

‘We turned on the engine and some minutes later the wheel just starts to spin uncontrolled, so we figured something might be wrong,’ she said. ‘And then on the side of the boat we could just see a huge orca.’

Killer whale attacks are common in the area with reports of rammings making headlines in recent months (file image)

The crew slammed the boat into reverse when the whales suddenly attacked the helm. Having sustained heavy hits to the rudder, ‘we quickly lost control’, fellow crew-member Lisa Festervoll told Seilmagasinet.

The whole boat shook, ‘hit hard and quickly’. They were ‘in disbelief’ as a six-metre long killer whale passed by the side of the vessel, Lisa said.

They used what they had to hand, thinking back to old sailor stories of fighting off whales with sand and vinegar. The women are seen pouring vinegar – ‘the cheapest one from Carrefour’, they say – into the water,in an effort to deter the whales.

‘We really don’t think that the vinegar did anything,’ Elise stressed. ‘But we just poured because it’s better than to feel helpless in the situation’.

Why do orcas attack boats?

A study in Marine Mammal Science last year concluded that the attacks on small boats follow the same pattern: orcas join in approaching from the stern, disabling the boat by hitting the rudder, and then lose interest.

Experts believe orcas may be teaching others how to pursue and attack boats, having observed a string of ‘coordinated’ strikes in Europe.

Some even think that one orca learned how to stop the boats, and then went on to teach others how to do it.

The sociable, intelligent animals have been responsible for more than 500 interactions with vessels since 2020, with at least three sinking.

It does not appear to be a very useful behaviour, and is not clearly helping their survival chances.

In fact, Alfredo Lopez, an orca researcher at the Atlantic Orca Working Group, says the critically endangered whales ‘run a great risk of getting hurt’ in attacks.

Dr Luke Rendell, who researches learning and behaviour among marine mammals at the University of St Andrews, agreed the behaviour does not seem to be an evolved adaptation.

Instead, he pointed to ‘short-lived fads’, like carrying dead salmon on their heads – a sign of sociability, but not a desperate bid to survive.

The answer to the boat attacks might lie with White Gladis, an orca with a personal vendetta against boats or people.

Lopez said ‘that traumatised orca is the one that started this behaviour of physical contact’.

‘The orcas are doing this on purpose,’ he told livescience.com. ‘Of course, we don’t know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day.’

Like humans, the orcas have ‘sophisticated learning abilities’ that allow them to digest the behaviour of others and replicate it themselves, a study in peer-reviewed journal Biological Conservation indicates.