A ship captain who's been attacked by orcas twice says they're learning how to attack boats faster: 'It didn't take them that long to destroy both rudders'

• A ship captain whose boat has been attacked by orcas twice says they are becoming more coordinated.
• The orcas knew "exactly" what they were doing this time, Dan Kriz told Newsweek.

A ship captain who's had his boats attacked by orcas twice says they're learning to be more organized and faster in their attacks.

Dan Kriz, a sailor with more than 20 years of sailing experience, told Newsweek that he was first attacked by orcas in 2020.

And he said that he noticed marked differences in how the orcas behaved when he was attacked again three years later, on April 15.

"First time, we could hear them communicating under the boat. This time, they were quiet, and it didn't take them that long to destroy both rudders," Kriz, a crew member with Reliance Yacht Management, told Newsweek.

Kriz also said that the latest attack was more organized and swifter than the one three years ago.

"Looks like they knew exactly what they are doing. They didn't touch anything else," Kriz told Newsweek, adding that a large female orca chased the boat and "wanted to finish the job."

Kriz told Newsweek that the first orca attack he experienced in 2020 happened while he was sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar — the same area that has seen a spike in vessel attacks by orcas since 2020.

"I was sailing with my delivery crew through the Strait of Gibraltar delivering a yacht when I was surrounded with a pack of eight orcas, pushing the boat around for about an hour," Kriz told Newsweek.

Kriz said he believed that the "same pack of orcas" was responsible for the attack that he experienced in April.

Though most orca interactions with boats have been harmless, there has been an increase in the reported number of orca boat attacks off Spain and Morocco.

It is unclear what is driving the orcas to attack the shipping vessels so violently. The orcas' increasingly aggressive behavior has seen them ramming and even sinking boats.

Some marine-life experts said that a traumatized orca called White Gladis may have kickstarted the trend of orca boat attacks.

Nonetheless, experts have cautioned sailors against retaliating against the orcas and advised them to remain calm.

"It's best to just not try to interfere with anything they're doing like socializing or hunting for their prey," Thomas Doniol-Valcroze, a marine biologist who heads the Canadian government's cetacean-research program, told CTV News.

"Maintain your course and your speed, basically not doing any sudden changes," Doniol-Valcroze said.