Atlantic Iberian Peninsula: Orca Interactions Update from the CA

Orca Interactions: Conflicting advice and mixed outcomes highlights need for better reporting

Update from the Cruising Association (CA) – March 2026

The Cruising Association has updated its Orca Interaction Comments Library, which collates first-hand reports from skippers describing the deterrent actions they took when encountering orca attacks and the outcomes that followed.

The latest update includes further reports of conflicting success and failure stories when the same deterrent measures were used. These reports underline the continued complexity and unpredictability of orca interactions.

Differing advice from Spain & Portugal

In particular, the CA has analysed available evidence in the reports relating to the differing advice from the Portuguese and Spanish authorities.

In early studies, Grupo Trabajo Orca Atlantica (GTOA) analysed the reports submitted to them and found marginally less damage among yachts that stopped compared with those that did not (51% vs 55%). A slightly more noticeable difference was observed in cases involving extensive damage where 24% of vessels that stopped sustained extensive damage compared with 31% that continued moving. The full GTOA article can be read here.

More recently, official guidance has diverged on what to do in the event of an interaction.

• Portuguese authorities advise skippers to ‘play dead’ or reverse if conditions permit.
• Whereas the Spanish authorities advise motoring away as fast as possible towards shallower water.

The CA understands this is based upon a tested theory that orca are unlikely to pursue a yacht for more than 2km, as they typically hunt within a defined area, and that the force of any impact on the rudder is likely to be lower when the yacht is moving.

No single approach shows guaranteed success

Examples extracted from the Orca Interaction Comments Library, illustrate both successful and unsuccessful outcomes using each approach. Read example extracts here.

These contrasting accounts reinforce the importance of reviewing the available evidence and understanding that no single approach has been shown to guarantee success.

Do your research

These examples represent a small selection of the reports received. Please take time to read the Orca Interaction Comments Library before heading out into an affected area and consider what action you might take in similar circumstances. Examine both the successes and failures experienced when motoring away or ‘playing dead’, and the use of deterrents such as noise, sand and other measures such as trailing chains over the stern – noting that some skippers used a combination of measures.

Having done so, please become part of the solution by supporting the CA’s ongoing work to identify best practice to avoid or deter interactions.

While a range of helpful resources is available to sailors, the Cruising Association provides the only publicly accessible resource where data and comments are collated and skippers’ first-hand accounts are categorised by different deterrent measure.

The CA also publishes and regularly update:

• a monthly table detailing the sea areas affected by attacks since the outset of the problem, to assist with passage planning to reduce the risk of an encounter with orcas.
• reports from passages through the areas of orca interaction activity when no incident occurred and provide a comparative analysis of interaction and uneventful passage reports in order to help identify any emerging patterns

Support the CA Orca Project with your report

However, in 2025 there were 133 recorded interactions, yet the CA received only 19 corresponding reports, significantly fewer than in previous years. If the CA is to identify patterns, draw meaningful conclusions and provide guidance to skippers in the light of differing scientific and governmental advice, then we need more reports.

The CA will continue to update our website as further information becomes available, and we appeal to all skippers sailing within and through the affected area to submit both interaction and uneventful passage reports. The report forms take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

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All resources, including report at: www.theca.org.uk/orcas

Read last year’s CA update on the CA Orca Project here.

See Noonsite’s Orca and Yachts page for a history of Orca behaviour around the Atlantic Iberian Peninsula since 2020 and many useful links.