Researchers consider killer whales are intentionally hitting boats, inflicting some to sink, following a string of incidents off the southwestern tip of Europe.

Scientists consider youthful orcas are imitating the behaviour of an older, hostile feminine.

The whale, often known as White Gladis, is believed to have been traumatised following a collision with a ship or being trapped in fishing nets.

"That traumatised orca is the one that started this behaviour of physical contact with the boat," stated Alfredo Lopez Fernandez, a biologist on the University of Aveiro in Portugal who has co-authored a examine on the mammals' behaviour.

He advised Live Science the behaviour was "defensive based on trauma" and was being imitated by different whales.

Three orcas reportedly attacked the rudder and aspect of a crusing yacht off the coast of Spain on 4 May. The coastguard rescued all the folks aboard however the boat ultimately sank.

Its skipper, Werner Schaufelberger advised German publication Yacht journal that two smaller whales appeared to repeat the approach of a bigger one by slamming into the boat.

Just two days earlier, six orcas rammed the hull of one other yacht within the Strait of Gibraltar.

It adopted an identical reported incident in November off the coast of Portugal when one other vessel sank after its hull was cracked after being hit.

There have been no less than 60 reported incidents between orcas and boats off the Iberian coast already this 12 months, based on information from GT Orca Atlantica working group.

Reports of incidents started in 2020 main Portugal's National Marine Agency to concern an announcement warning sailors of the mammal's "curious behaviour".

It stated the whales could also be interested in rudders and propellers and warned sailors to switch-off boat engines if the whales method.

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A 12 months later Spanish authorities banned small boats from crusing close to the coast of Cape Trafalgar following 50 encounters with orcas, together with 25 during which boats needed to be towed to shore.

Iberian orcas are an remoted subpopulation of killer whales that may develop as much as 21ft (6.5m) in size. They are labeled as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.