Yet again, the orcas have come for a yacht. This time it was a $128,680 vessel traversing the Strait of Gibraltar, carrying British yachtsman Robert Powell, 59. Powell was celebrating his birthday aboard the boat, and the attack came less than a day into what was supposed to be a 10-day trip from Portugal to Greece, the New York Post reports. Recent thinking on the phenomenon of killer whales sinking boats indicates it may be a game for the animals, but Powell says, "To me, they were not playing at all, they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the weak points of the boat, and they knew how to sink it." An expert tells Newsweek, however, there is no evidence the orcas intentionally sank the boat.
The Bonhomie William was two miles off the coast of Spain when the whales started attacking, and the crew radioed for help right away. But it took two hours for help to arrive, during which time the pod of five orcas circled and rammed the 39-foot vessel. An hour and a half in, the hull buckled and split, and water rushed into the yacht's main living area. The vessel went completely under just minutes after a Spanish salvage vessel arrived and the crew helped those on board the Bonhomie William to abandon ship. Powell and the crew are all safe, MSN reports. (More orca stories.)
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