Since summer, the sailors have reported that orcas are ramming their boats and sometimes for hours on end. This year, there have been 49 incidents of killer whales attacking the boats recorded, a behavior that was not previously reported.

Has a whale ever attacked a boat?

While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the Union in 1807, the Essex incident some 30 years beforehand was the only other documented case of a whale deliberately attacking, holing, and sinking a ship.

Do whales breach and hit boats?

Mariners called the encounter off New South Wales “incredibly rare,” the Australia Broadcasting Corporation reported. Whales are hit by boats far more often. “Whales are incredibly intelligent, and very aware of the areas that's around them,” John Moore, a former Montague Island charter operator, told the network.