"Some lines of development of acoustic deterrents are being developed that will be tested this summer, in order to try to find options for the protection of sailboats and minimise the number of interactions," António Bessa de Carvalho, president of the National Association of Cruises (ANC), told Lusa.

The Portuguese Navy, the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) and the ANC have been holding meetings since March to try to find a solution to these interactions between orcas and sailboats up to 15 meters - still unexplained - and which have already led to the sinking of at least two vessels.

The first cases of interactions on the Portuguese coast were recorded in 2020, when some younger orcas began interacting with vessels, mainly sailboats, although there have also been some cases with fishing and pneumatic vessels.

"Sailboat owners are very concerned and at this moment they are afraid to take their boats to the Algarve, as they do every year," says the ANC president.

Bessa de Carvalho also mentioned the case of "many foreigners who avoid Portuguese waters" and, who come from northern Europe and go directly to Madeira and the Canaries, avoiding descending along the west coast of the country.

"We hope that this joint work will be fruitful and we will be able to develop an apparatus that will allow us to protect the vessels and the group of orcas," said the official.

According to the website of the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), since the beginning of the year, there have been a few dozen "interactions with physical contact" of boats with orcas, mainly on the coast of Andalusia (Spain) that runs from Cadiz to the Strait of Gibraltar.

In Portugal, there were, during the same period, six of these "interactions with physical contact", all several miles off the coast: one off Peniche, three off Cape Espichel, one off Melides and three south of Faro.

These animals are attracted mainly to the rudder of the boats and, in some cases, the interactions caused severe damage that prevented the boats from sailing, as they were unable to set a course.

"It is not yet known why the orcas have interacted with the vessels, what we do know is that they have interacted mainly with the rudder of sailboats, being a relatively fragile structure in these vessels," marine biologist Rui Peres dos Santos told Lusa.

According to the researcher, a doctoral student at the Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) of the University of Algarve (UAlg), "sailboats have been the main target of interactions and those that have shown the most damage, although there have already been interactions with fishing boats and whale watching."

Asked by Lusa about whether these interactions may pose any risk to bathers, Rui Peres dos Santos said that, to date, there has been no record of any interaction with people in the water, either swimming near the boats or on the beach, so this danger will be, from the outset, non-existent.

These animals are cetaceans of the dolphin family, feeding mainly on Atlantic bluefin tuna. Despite having teeth, according to GTOA, they never eat cetaceans or other marine mammals.

The commander of the Southern Maritime Zone, Rui Santos Pereira, says that there is no "direct" danger to people, with only the concern that the interaction will lead to the rudder breaking and the boat sinking.

In the case of bathers, the captain of the Port of Faro agrees that the orcas "do not attack", maintaining that there is no danger.

According to reports cited by the GTOA, the orcas "touched, pushed and even turned" the course of the vessels, which in some cases had damage to the level of their rudder.

According to information from various entities, in case of spotting orcas, the vessels should, if possible, slow down and stop the engine, stop exerting pressure on the rudder and wait for the animals to move away.

The Iberian orca is a subpopulation of orcas that lives in the northeast Atlantic, usually ranging from the west coast of Galicia (Spain) to the Strait of Gibraltar, which includes the entire Portuguese coast.

The adult length of the Iberian killer whales is between five and six meters, a small size compared to other orcas, such as the Antarctic ones that reach nine meters.