THE SUN joined the specialist Orca team searching for fearsome killer whale White Gladis and her gang in the choppy waters off Gibraltar.
We met the squad of Sea Shepherd France in the port of Barbate, a small fishing village in Spain, as they searched for the pod that have taken to attacking boats.
The group, part of the Save the Iberian Orcas operation, is focused on documenting the orcas’ interactions with vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and preventing reprisals by sailors.
One particular rogue pod of whales with its leader White Gladis has been behind several attacks – smashing into boats and causing them to sink.
Earlier this year the gang pummeled a 50ft Alboran Cognac with two people onboard sparking concern among the locals.
In November 2023, they relentlessly battered a yacht for 45 minutes damaging the boat’s rudder and terrorising sailors onboard.
It was suggested that gang leader Gladis could even be teaching younger members of the group with her lieutenants Black and Grey Gladis to strike the vessels.
There have been over 600 orca interactions with yachts and fishing boats since 2020 in the Strait of Gibraltar known as “Orca Alley”.
The high number of sightings prompted the project, as Sea Shepherd France works alongside scientists to establish the reason behind the rising number of orcas.
We arrive at the Andalusian port where Captain Thomas Le Coz welcomes us and introduces us to the Walrus’s crew.
The Walrus has been docked in Barbate since April and goes on expeditions patrolling the waters almost daily.
Thomas shows us the so-called “hot zone,” just south of the port, where they have had the most encounters with the killer whales.
The team’s leader, Lamya Essemlali, explains that the killer whales are usually found in Spanish and Moroccan waters, but it’s not uncommon for them to reach Portugal while during the winter they head up north and go as far as Britanny in France.
While the reason the killer whales have shown an interest in boats remains a mystery, Lamya dismissed previous theories that the orcas are seeking revenge and is adamant that “we are not on their menu.”
She explains that the most probable cause is that the orcas are curious about the vessels and are not approaching them to harm humans.
Lamya told The Sun: “Even though they are top predators, even though they are so huge and powerful and they can be very, very impressive when they come towards the boat they are actually really gentle.
“There is a theory that says that one of them got hit by a boat, and she [White Gladis] got mad and so she wanted to seek revenge from the boat and she taught that behaviour to others.
She is referring to the theory that orca leader White Gladis is the one who started showing other orcas how to attack the boats.
Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, previously told LiveScience: “That traumatized orca is the one that started this behaviour of physical contact with the boat.”
But Lamya insists there is no scientific evidence to prove his theory – adding “it doesn’t even make sense.”
She told The Sun: “When you pay attention to the way they interact with the boats, there is not the slightest aggressivity in the way they do it.
“If they wanted to sink these boats, they wouldn’t have sunk four or five like they have, they, they would have sunk the 600.
“There has never been any injury or anyone ever killed by an orca in the wild.
“The only cases were by orcas driven mad by captivity – in the wild, they don’t, we simply are not on their menu.”
She shows us incredible underwater footage from one of the team’s trips in the Atlantic where a pod of 15 orcas play around a boat and gently touch the back of the vessel.
She says: “If you compare that with a group of orcas that are actually attacking a seal or banging an iceberg, a block of ice to get, I mean, you can see the difference.”
Recalling the moment they encountered the pod, she said: “When we met the group of 15, we put cameras in the water and it was very interesting to see how they were interested in cameras and you can see their eyes coming really close.
“They were also like spying on us, looking at us, there were a lot of exchanges, they are highly conscious, highly complex and intelligent animals, you can just see by looking at them.
Aliki Kraterou, Senior Foreign News Reporter
THE SKY is clouded as it’s early in the morning when we arrive at the Andalusian port where we’re meeting the Walrus’s crew.
The ship’s captain Thomas Le Coz welcomed us with a smile while the rest of the group curiously watched as the photographer Louis set up his equipment.
A few of them turn up sipping coffee while others start preparing the boat chatting excitedly about the day – in a mix of English, French and Spanish.
A couple of them do not realise I am a Spanish speaker and I understand when they’re trying to (unsuccessfully) guess where I’m from.
After we’ve all been introduced, the team gives us a tour of the boat and shares their hopes to come across some whales – as they tell me it doesn’t happen all the time.
Lamya is chatty, friendly and passionate as she explains why the whales are not a threat to humans.
She finishes her thoughts in a philosophical tone, saying that humans are entering the sea which is in fact the orcas’ natural habitat and we all need to be more humble regarding our place in the sea.
“We are just their guests, this is their home, we are passing through,” she says.
“It was very interesting also to have a vision of what they do underwater because you can see that they are super, super gentle.
“They were pushing the boat very, very slowly. At some point, we turned off the engine and, and they started pushing the boat like they wanted to keep going.
“At some other moment, we kept going and we went faster and they followed.
“One of them grabbed the mic she kept it in her mouth for a few seconds and then she let it go.”
“They were also like spying on us, looking at us, there were a lot of exchanges, they are highly conscious, highly complex and intelligent animals.
Lamya Essemlali
Lamya explains that the purpose of the group is to patrol the area and check the whales’ wellbeing as well as educate local fishermen on how to react in case they come across them and which routes to avoid.
Lamya said: “They ended up damaging a few of the boats and sinking about four or five of them.
“And it has raised a lot of anxiety among the sailing community and also some small fishermen.
“And we wanted to understand why they are doing this, but also to spread the message that what we do know that it’s not the reason is seeking revenge or attacking boats, attacking people.”
She notes what the group is most concerned about is the retaliation – especially since the killer whales are a critically endangered species with only about 40 of them left in the Strait of Gibraltar.
She says people “have thrown explosives at the orcas” or have “threatened to kill” them.
