Gladys

November 06, 2023

© slowmotiongli/Getty

A Newsweek article appeared on my browser today concerning a group of orcas who attacked and sank a 40 foot (12.2 m) yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar.  The pod of orcas surrounded the yacht and proceeded to ram into the steering fin of the boat for 45 minutes, “causing major damage and leakage”.  The crew was aided by the Moroccan Navy and attempted to steer the vessel away from the animals and bring it into port, but the boat sank near the entrance of Tanger Med, in Morocco.  The crew were unharmed in the incident, but the tour company expressed sadness at the loss of the boat.  This is not an isolated event as orcas have been interfering with boats in this stretch of ocean for years.  The interactions have been an issue since 2020 in waters off Spain, Portugal, and Morocco and vary from orcas merely inspecting boats to attacking them.  Orcas are incredibly intelligent, socially complex animals, and display evidence of adopting learned behaviors from senior members of a pod.  Some theories for this behavior surround one specific orca who lives in the Strait known as White Gladys.

When I looked online, I found the name Gladys has been given to more than one of the orcas living in the area, and there are 15 whales with this name.  The orca whale (Orcinus orca) who has recently become famous on the internet for causing damage and sinking yachts is the one scientist’s call white Gladys, the oldest (and only adult) of the group (pod).  There are also juvenile’s such as grey Gladys, black Gladys, and small Gladys.  For the last three years these animals have engaged in very unusual behavior with boats, which has resulted in significant damage.  Scientists point to different hypotheses to explain why these killer whales are ramming boats.  Some believe white Gladys is teaching the younger whales to hit the boats because of an alleged trauma stemming from a past collision, but that cannot be verified.  While researchers do not know how to explain the attitude of these orcas, they believe their actions are a learned behavior through their curiosity and playfulness.  That is the extent of what science knows about this peculiar group of cetaceans.  White Gladys and her pod are going viral on social media.

White Gladys and her pod have been ramming boats in the area for the past few years.  In 2020, researchers with the Coordinator for the Study of Marine Mammals said they were behind 61% of the attacks and there are indications that orca are learning this behavior and passing it down to one another.  David Lusseau, professor of marine sustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, previously told Newsweek that he does not believe the attacks result from aggression.  “It is my opinion that this is not aggressive behavior, and definitely not planned behavior with more complex motivations, such as revenge.  Vessels are objects in the environment of these killer whales.”  Memes posted on social media have amplified the image of white Gladys as a murderous and vengeful whale that intentionally attacks boats to cause harm, but experts say this interpretation is far from reality.  

Thoughts:  The history of white Gladys and the killer whale attacks was first documented in the Strait of Gibraltar in May 2020.  It was two months before another attack in July of that year on the coast of Portugal.  In mid-August, the attacks moved to the Galician coast in northern Spain.  The whales move as they follow the trail of tuna, their main food source.  Since then, the whales have continued encounters with boats.  In 2023, the Orca Atlántica [Atlantic Orca] organization has identified up to 43 interactions around the Strait of Gibraltar, with 12 encounters damaging boats while 31 were sightings.  These figures are higher than in previous years at this point.  In Melville’s story the adversary was not an orca but a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), but Gladys and Moby both resound with the human anxiety of the unknown associated with the sea.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.