killer whales attack sailboats during race scary moment

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Killer whales attack sailboats during international race: "A dangerous moment"

By Kerry Breen

June 23, 2023 / 12:15 PM EDT / CBS News

Two sailing teams competing in a round-the-world race had a scary encounter with a pod of orcas on Thursday afternoon, race officials said. 

The two teams are part of The Ocean Race, an international competition that also gathers climate data . The race has seven stretches across the world, but the two boats that encountered the killer whales are participating in a smaller three-leg version of the competition, called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint .  

One boat was crewed by Team JAJO, a group from Amsterdam. The other is crewed by Mirpuri Trifork Racing, a team from Portugal. The boats were traveling through the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar when the encounter happened at around 2:50 local time, the organization  said in a news release .

Jelmar van Beek, skipper of the JAJO Team, reported that there were multiple orcas involved. Both teams said that there was no damage to the boats and reported there were no injuries, but said the orcas had pushed up against the boat and nudged and bitten at the rudders. In one case, an orca rammed the boat.  

"Twenty minutes ago we got hit by some orcas," said Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek in a news release. "Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team. We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they went away … This was a scary moment."

The incident comes amid reports of seemingly coordinated attacks on boats by orcas. Multiple such incidents have been reported around Gibraltar, which neighbors Spain. Incidents where orcas have worked individually or in a pod to ram a boat's hull or rudders have tripled in the past two years , researchers have said, but it's not clear why. Between July and November 2020, there were 52 such interactions recorded by GTOA, a group that studies orcas in the Gibraltar area. In 2022, there were 207 such interactions. In at least three cases, the damage has resulted in sinking, The Ocean Race said. 

A boat captain who was attacked twice by orcas, once in 2020 and once in 2022, told Newsweek that the whales seemed to have a plan. 

"First time, we could hear them communicating under the boat," he told Newsweek. "This time, they were quiet, and it didn't take them that long to destroy both rudders. ... Looks like they knew exactly what they are doing. They didn't touch anything else." 

Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News' TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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Orcas disrupt boat race near Spain in latest display of dangerous, puzzling behavior

In a image from video provided by The Ocean Race, an orca moves along a rudder of the Team JAJO entry in The Ocean Race on Thursday, June 22, 2023, as the boat approached the Strait of Gibraltar. A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. No one was injured. (The Ocean Race via AP)

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A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”

“Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.

Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 16-21 feet (5-6½ meters) and weigh more than 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.

The behavior defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

The sailors were warned of the hazard.

“We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg,” Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. “So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur.”

Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to scare the orcas off, but not before it had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive this weekend.

“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks,” he said. “Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK.”

The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) circumnavigation of the globe. Boats have already contended with a giant seaweed flotilla , catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg.

Although the race course navigates around exclusion zones to protect known marine habitats, there have been previous encounters with whales in The Ocean Race and other high-speed regattas.

However, they usually involve the boats crashing into the animals, and not the other way around.

One of the boats in the around-the-world portion of this year’s Ocean Race triggered its hazard alarm after hitting what they suspected was a whale off the coast of Newfoundland in May; two crew members were injured in the collision. At the beginning of the 2013 America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay, a whale was reported in the bay and organizers were prepared to delay a race if it wandered onto the course. In 2022, the start of SailGP’s $1 million, winner-take-all Season 2 championship race on the same area of San Francisco Bay was delayed when a whale was spotted on the course.

In 2005, the first South African yacht to challenge for the America’s Cup hit a whale with its 12-foot keel during training near Cape Town, stopping the 75-foot sloop dead in the water, injuring two crewmembers and snapping off both steering wheels.

AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this story.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

'Scary moment' as orcas disrupt ocean boat race in latest display of puzzling behaviour

Crew forced to drop sails in 15-minute encounter near strait of gibralter.

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A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was "a scary moment."

"Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas," he said in the video. "Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team."

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.

• Video Orcas are ramming boats off the Spanish coast, puzzling experts
• Inbreeding is hampering population growth for orcas, study finds

Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years. The mammals average from 5-6 1/2 metres) and weigh more than 3,600 kilograms.

The behaviour defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

"We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg," on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. "So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur."

Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to to scare the orcas off.

WATCH | Aggressive orcas damage boat off southern Spain:

Aggressive killer whales damage boat off coast of southern Spain

"They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks," he said. "Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK."

The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) circumnavigation of the globe. The race is on its final leg, from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive later this week.

Boats have already contended with a giant seaweed flotilla, catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg. One of the boats in the around-the-world portion of the race triggered its hazard alarm after hitting what they suspected was a whale off the coast of Newfoundland; two crew members were injured in the collision.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/orcas-disrupt-sailing-race-near-spain-in-latest-display-of-inexplicably-bold-behavior

Orcas disrupt sailing race near Spain in latest display of inexplicably bold behavior

A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a  growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions  with Iberian orcas.

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”

“Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.

Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 16-21 feet (5-6½ meters) and weigh more than 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.

The behavior defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

READ MORE: What the grieving mother orca tells us about how animals experience death

The sailors were warned of the hazard.

“We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg,” Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. “So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur.”

Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to to scare the orcas off, but not before it had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive this weekend.

“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks,” he said. “Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK.”

The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) circumnavigation of the globe. Boats have already contended with a  giant seaweed flotilla , catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg.

Although the race course navigates around exclusion zones to protect known marine habitats, there have been previous encounters with whales in The Ocean Race and other high-speed regattas.

However, they usually involve the boats crashing into the animals, and not the other way around.

One of the boats in the around-the-world portion of this year’s Ocean Race triggered its hazard alarm after hitting what they suspected was a whale off the coast of Newfoundland in May; two crew members were injured in the collision. At the beginning of the 2013 America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay, a whale was reported in the bay and organizers were prepared to delay a race if it wandered onto the course. In 2022, the start of SailGP’s $1 million, winner-take-all Season 2 championship race on the same area of San Francisco Bay was delayed when a whale was spotted on the course.

In 2005, the first South African yacht to challenge for the America’s Cup hit a whale with its 12-foot keel during training near Cape Town, stopping the 75-foot sloop dead in the water, injuring two crewmembers and snapping off both steering wheels.

AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this story.

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Group of orcas attack and sink vessels off Iberian Peninsula

World Jun 14

Three killer whales surround racing sloop in latest unnerving encounter with the marine mammals

A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.

Key points:

• The boat crew made noise to scare the orcas away from the racing sloop
• Scientists have noted increasing reports of orca aggression in the region
• Some of the mammal's actions may be attributed to young whales playing

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off.

No-one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was "a scary moment".

"Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas," he said in the video. "Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team."

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the boat. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.

Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 5 to 6 metres in length and weigh more than 3,600 kilograms, bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.

The behaviour defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters.

Thirteen of the animals are young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing.

The involvement of two adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

Sailors forewarned of the hazard

"We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg," Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. "So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur."

Mr Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to scare the orcas off, but not before the vessel had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive this weekend.

"They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks," he said. "Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK."

The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 59,000-kilometre circumnavigation of the globe. Boats have already contended with a giant seaweed flotilla, catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg.

Although the race course navigates around exclusion zones to protect known marine habitats, there have been previous encounters with whales in The Ocean Race and other high-speed regattas.

However, they usually involve the boats crashing into the animals, and not the other way around.

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Watch: Boat taking part in The Ocean Race has 'scary moment' with pod of orcas

Two boats taking part in the The Ocean Race had run-ins with killer whales on Thursday, the race reported .

Team JAJO's "scary moment" with a pod of three orcas in the Atlantic Ocean while approaching the Straights of Gibraltar was caught on video. The orcas bumped the VO65 class sloop and appeared to take particular interest in the ship's rudders.

"Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team," Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in the video released by the race.

"We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they went away."

Team JAJO and Mirpuri Trifork Racing, the other boat to report an orca encounter Thursday, both noted that neither boat sustained damage and no injuries occurred.

Contributing: Associated Press

Orcas disrupt boat race near Spain in latest display of dangerous, puzzling behavior

Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull, by jimmy golen • published june 23, 2023 • updated on june 23, 2023 at 8:17 pm.

A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”

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“Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.

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Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 16-21 feet (5-6½ meters) and weigh more than 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.

The behavior defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

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The sailors were warned of the hazard.

“We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg,” Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. “So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur.”

Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to to scare the orcas off, but not before it had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive this weekend.

“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks,” he said. “Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK.”

The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) circumnavigation of the globe. Boats have already contended with a giant seaweed flotilla, catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg.

Although the race course navigates around exclusion zones to protect known marine habitats, there have been previous encounters with whales in The Ocean Race and other high-speed regattas.

However, they usually involve the boats crashing into the animals, and not the other way around.

One of the boats in the around-the-world portion of this year's Ocean Race triggered its hazard alarm after hitting what they suspected was a whale off the coast of Newfoundland in May; two crew members were injured in the collision. At the beginning of the 2013 America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay, a whale was reported in the bay and organizers were prepared to delay a race if it wandered onto the course. In 2022, the start of SailGP’s $1 million, winner-take-all Season 2 championship race on the same area of San Francisco Bay was delayed when a whale was spotted on the course.

In 2005, the first South African yacht to challenge for the America’s Cup hit a whale with its 12-foot keel during training near Cape Town, stopping the 75-foot sloop dead in the water, injuring two crewmembers and snapping off both steering wheels.

AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this story.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Orcas sank a yacht off Spain — the latest in a slew of such 'attacks' in recent years

Scott Neuman

Killer whales are pictured during a storm in the fjord of Skjervoy in 2021 off the coast of northern Norway. Researchers say orcas are stepping up "attacks" on yachts along Europe's Iberian coast. Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Killer whales are pictured during a storm in the fjord of Skjervoy in 2021 off the coast of northern Norway. Researchers say orcas are stepping up "attacks" on yachts along Europe's Iberian coast.

The crew of a sinking yacht was rescued off the coast of Spain this week after a pod of orcas apparently rammed the vessel – the latest "attack" by the marine mammals in the area that has left scientists stumped, several boats at the bottom of the ocean and scores more damaged.

Killer whales are 'attacking' sailboats near Europe's coast. Scientists don't know why

The encounter on Sunday between an unknown number of orcas, also known as "killer whales," and the 49-foot sailing yacht Alboran Cognac occurred on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow passage linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean where the majority of such incidents have occurred in recent years.

The Alboran Cognac's crew said they felt sudden blows on the hull and that the boat began taking on water. They were rescued by a nearby oil tanker, but the sailboat, left to drift, later went down.

The sinking brings the number of vessels sunk – mostly sailing yachts – to at least five since 2020. Hundreds of less serious encounters resulting in broken rudders and other damage, Alfredo López Fernandez, a coauthor of a 2022 study in the journal Marine Mammal Science, told NPR late last year.

As NPR first reported in 2022, many scientists who study orca behavior believe these incidents — in which often one or more of the marine mammals knock off large chunks of a sailboat's rudder — are not meant as attacks, but merely represent playful behavior.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Catamaran Guru(@catamaranguru)

Some marine scientists have characterized these encounters over the years as a "fad," implying that the animals will eventually lose interest and return to more typical behavior.

The study co-authored by López Fernandez, for example, indicated two years ago that orcas were stepping up the frequency of their interactions with sailing vessels in and around the Strait of Gibraltar.

Some researchers think it's merely playful behavior

One hypothesis put forward by Renaud de Stephanis, president and coordinator at CIRCE Conservación Information and Research, a research group based in Spain, is that orcas like the feel of the water jet produced by a boat's propeller.

A picture taken on May 31, 2023, shows the rudder of a vessel damaged by killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar and taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain. Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A picture taken on May 31, 2023, shows the rudder of a vessel damaged by killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar and taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain.

"What we think is that they're asking to have the propeller in the face," de Stephanis told NPR in 2022. "So, when they encounter a sailboat that isn't running its engine, they get kind of frustrated and that's why they break the rudder."

In one encounter last year, Werner Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht that his vessel, Champagne, was approached by "two smaller and one larger orca" off Gibraltar.

"The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side," he said.

The Spanish coast guard rescued Schaufelberger and his crew, towing Champagne to the Spanish port of Barbate, but the vessel sank before reaching safety.

A worker cleans Champagne, a vessel that sank after an attack by orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar and was taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain, on May 31, 2023. Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A worker cleans Champagne, a vessel that sank after an attack by orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar and was taken for repairs at the Pecci Shipyards in Barbate, near Cadiz, southern Spain, on May 31, 2023.

The encounters could be a response to past trauma

López Fernandez believes that a female known as White Gladis, who leads the group of around 40 animals, may have had a traumatizing encounter with a boat or a fishing net. In an act of revenge, she is teaching her pod-mates how to carry out attacks with her encouragement, he believes.

"The orcas are doing this on purpose, of course, we don't know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day," López Fernandez told Live Science .

It's an intriguing possibility, Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute , told NPR last year.

"I definitely think orcas are capable of complex emotions like revenge," she said. "I don't think we can completely rule it out."

However, Shields said she remained skeptical of the "revenge" hypothesis. She said that despite humans having "given a lot of opportunities for orcas to respond to us in an aggressive manner," there are no other examples of them doing so.

Deborah Giles, the science and research director at Wild Orca, a conservation group based in Washington state, was also cautious about the hypothesis when NPR spoke to her last year. She pointed out that killer whale populations in waters off Washington "were highly targeted" in the past as a source for aquariums. She said seal bombs – small charges that fishers throw into the water in an effort to scare sea lions away from their nets – were dropped in their path while helicopters and boats herded them into coves.

"The pod never attacked boats after that," she said.

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Killer whales filmed attacking boat in The Ocean Race in ‘scary moment’

• Connor Andrews
• Published : 12:27, 23 Jun 2023
• Updated : 12:27, 23 Jun 2023
• Published : Invalid Date,

Two sailing teams at The Ocean Race have reported attacks by killer whales during a leg of the event on Thursday.

Both incidents occurred in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar and the Dutch squad, Team JAJO , captured footage of the animals pushing up against their boat.

Clearly worried about damage to their rudders, the team managed to get a camera underwater to show two of the giants stopping their race to nudge and bite the boat.

Mirpuri Trifork Racing also reported an incident involving orcas, and both teams notified race control to report no damage to their boats.

It was still a worrying moment for the teams, with Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek explaining his squad’s emergency response.

“20 minutes ago we got hit by some orcas,” he said. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders.

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“Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.

“We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they went away… This was a scary moment.

“We were second place and now we’re fourth place chasing two boats again, hopefully we can overtake them again, I’m pretty sure, although this was a scary moment.”

The incident comes with a number of killer whale attacks in the news, with one a day earlier occurring in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland’s Shetland Islands.

A fisherman reported an orca hitting his seven-ton yacht but remained unscathed, however not everyone has been as lucky.

The area around Gibraltar where The Ocean Race incidents took place has become known for an increase in orca attacks, with scientists trying to understand their new behaviour.

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On May 4, a boat was sunk during an attack off the coast of Spain and Portugal, becoming the third vessel to sink in the area in three years due to killer whales, but on each occasion the people onboard were unharmed.

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Killer Whales Sunk a 50-Foot Sailing Yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar

It's just the latest in a string of orca attacks on sailboats., tori latham, tori latham's most recent stories.

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Two sailors had a whale of a time over the weekend—but only in the technical sense.

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“This was a scary moment,” the skipper Jelmer van Beek said at the time. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

While that attack didn’t result in the sinking of the ship, another sailing yacht sank near the Tanger Med port in November, The New York Times wrote. The crew of that ship had to abandon the boat after a group of orcas slammed into the rudder for a whole 45 minutes. (The whales have seemingly been targeting sailboats in particular.)

Researchers don’t know for sure why the whales have been attacking boats, but they think it may be one of the ways the orcas play, the Times said—a pretty dangerous form of amusement, albeit. Others have theorized that it’s a short-term fad among the animals, or that one orca experienced a traumatic event that made it aggressive and other whales began to mimic that behavior. The incidents have become so common in recent years that sailors trade advice online about how to maneuver in the Strait of Gibraltar area, and the Spanish government issued a release that included tips for sailors.

Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

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Killer whales attack sailboats during race: "Scary moment"

Two sailing teams competing in a round-the-world race had a scary encounter with a pod of orcas on Thursday afternoon, race officials said.

The two teams are part of The Ocean Race, an international competition that also gathers climate data . The race has seven stretches across the world, but the two boats that encountered the killer whales are participating in a smaller three-leg version of the competition, called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint .

One boat was crewed by Team JAJO, a group from Amsterdam. The other is crewed by Mirpuri Trifork Racing, a team from Portugal. The boats were traveling through the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar when the encounter happened at around 2:50 local time, the organization  said in a news release .

Jelmar van Beek, skipper of the JAJO Team, reported that there were multiple orcas involved. Both teams said that there was no damage to the boats and reported there were no injuries, but said the orcas had pushed up against the boat and nudged and bitten at the rudders. In one case, an orca rammed the boat.

"Twenty minutes ago we got hit by some orcas," said Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek in a news release. "Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team. We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they went away … This was a scary moment."

The incident comes amid reports of seemingly coordinated attacks on boats by orcas. Multiple such incidents have been reported around Gibraltar, which neighbors Spain. Incidents where orcas have worked individually or in a pod to ram a boat's hull or rudders have tripled in the past two years , researchers have said, but it's not clear why. Between July and November 2020, there were 52 such interactions recorded by GTOA, a group that studies orcas in the Gibraltar area. In 2022, there were 207 such interactions. In at least three cases, the damage has resulted in sinking, The Ocean Race said.

A boat captain who was attacked twice by orcas, once in 2020 and once in 2022, told Newsweek that the whales seemed to have a plan.

"First time, we could hear them communicating under the boat," he told Newsweek. "This time, they were quiet, and it didn't take them that long to destroy both rudders. ... Looks like they knew exactly what they are doing. They didn't touch anything else."

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Team JAJO had some special –– and terrifying –– visitors while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar as part of the 2023 Ocean Race on Thursday.

A group of orcas, otherwise known as killer whales, surrounded the Dutch crew’s yacht, first circling the boat and then ramming into it. 

“This was a scary moment,” Jelmer van Beek, Team JAJO skipper,  said, according to the Associated Press . “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”

Some of Team JAJO’s crew banged on the ship’s hull to try to scare the orcas away while the whales started biting the boat’s rudders.

“We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible, and luckily after a few attacks, they went away,” van Beek said. 

Team JAJO was in second place of the VO65 class in the Ocean Race when the incident happened.

While they dropped to fourth place after handling the orcas, the group eventually slotted back into second by the end of the day and remain there now as the race enters the final leg. 

The Ocean Race, started in 1973, is a six-month yacht race that covers 32,000 nautical miles and goes through nine international cities –– the competition started from Alicante, Spain in January and will finish at the end of June in Genova, Italy. 

There has reportedly been a recent increase in orca sightings in the Strait of Gibraltar.

There were more than 20 incidents of orcas interacting with boats logged in May. 

The Mipuri/Trifork Racing Team, another group competing in the Ocean Race, reported a pod of orcas, but there was no damage caused. 

Team JAJO is in good spirits after the scary moment and is back on track to Italy.

“Thankfully, the crew and the boat are unharmed,” they wrote in an Instagram post . “The Dutch boat skippered by Jelmer van Beek is now back on its way to Genova.” 

Racing yachts have close encounter with pod of orcas near Strait of Gibraltar

No injuries or damage was reported.

LONDON -- Racing yachts had a close encounter with a pod of orcas near the Strait of Gibraltar on Thursday, race officials said.

Crew members aboard a rival pair of 65-foot yachts were on the final leg of The Ocean Race, an around-the-world sailing competition, when they reported being intercepted by killer whales as their boats approached the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, separating Europe from Africa.

One of the teams' crew members filmed the interaction. The footage, released by The Ocean Race, shows the orcas approach Team JAJO's yacht, then swim up alongside and underneath the vessel as the crew remains on board. The killer whales are also seen nudging the boat's rudders.

"Three orcas came at us -- straight at us -- and started hitting the rudders," Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in the video, after the incident. "Impressive to see the orcas, first of all. Beautiful animal, but also dangerous moment for us as a team.

"We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily, after a few attacks, they went away," he added. "But this was a scary moment."

The Mirpuri/Trifork Racing Team also reported having an encounter with the same killer whale pod. Both teams subsequently contacted race control to confirm there had been no injuries among their crew and no damage to their boats, according to a press release from The Ocean Race.

"Fortunately for The Ocean Race boats today, the orca encounters were brief and relatively benign, although no doubt frightening," race officials said in a statement Thursday.

It was the latest such episode reported between vessels and the orcas populating the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The behavior appears to have become a trend in recent months and has baffled researchers.

MORE: Killer whales learn 'coordinated' attacks on sailboats, some observers say

However, these incidents were first reported at least three years ago, according to the Atlantic Orca Working Group (GTOA), a team of Spanish and Portuguese marine scientists who study the so-called Iberian orcas. In 2020, GTOA recorded 52 such interactions, some of which resulted in damaged rudders. That number increased to 197 in 2021 and 207 in 2022.

Some researchers believe the recent spikes in aggression may have been started by a female orca named White Gladis. The killer whale matriarch apparently suffered a "critical moment of agony," such as a boat collision, which inflicted trauma on the cetacean, triggering a behavioral switch that other orcas have learned to imitate.

Nevertheless, the majority of orca-sailor encounters have been harmless and no casualties appear to have been reported.

ABC News' Emma Ogao and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.

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Orca encounter: “This was a scary moment”

Race boats bumped by orcas in approach to Gibraltar Strait Peter Rusch

Two of the VO65 boats racing in The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint have had direct encounters with orcas - killer whales - in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar on Thursday afternoon.

Watch the video below: (swearing alert!!)

Team JAJO and Mirpuri Trifork Racing have both reported being approached by orcas around 1450 UTC. The teams subsequently contacted Race Control to confirm there had been no injuries and no damage to their boats, despite the orcas pushing up against or in at least one case ramming into the boat and nudging or biting at the rudders.

“20 minutes ago we got hit by some orcas,” said Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek after the incident. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team. We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they went away… This was a scary moment.”

The area around Gibraltar is becoming well known for what some are calling ‘orca attacks’ on boats, where an individual or pod of orcas repeatedly ram into a boat's hull or rudders. In some cases, boats have been significantly damaged - at least three to the point of sinking.

There is some good background information on this orca pod here -  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-has-a-group-of-orcas-suddenly-started-attacking-boats/  

Scientists are still trying to understand this new behaviour.

Fortunately for The Ocean Race boats today, the orca encounters were brief and relatively benign, although no doubt frightening, but with no damage to the people, boats or animals. 

Orcas sink another yacht after 45-minute long attack

The crew was spared from any injuries however they were unable to save the yacht despite assistance from port tugs and the Moroccan Navy

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A pod of orcas has sunk another sailing yacht off the coast of Spain after a 45-minute assault on the boat, according to the sail touring agency Morskie Mile.

Orcas sink another yacht after 45-minute long attack Back to video

As the boat steered towards the Straight of Gibraltar on October 31, the agency reported that the vessel, Grazie Mamma II, was targeted by a pod of orcas attacking the boat’s steering fin “causing major damage and leakage,” they reported in a Facebook post .

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Although the crew was spared from any injuries, they were unable to save the yacht despite assistance from port tugs and the Moroccan Navy as the flooding was too serious. The crew abandoned the ship and the yacht sank off the port of Tangier Med, a Moroccan port.

“This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us,” they said.

“Longtime friendships formed on board. We sailed on this yacht around the most beautiful places in Europe and the Atlantic archipelagos, trained numerous sea stewards, discovered the beautiful and the unknown, tasted Mediterranean specialties … Love of the sea always wins.”

In June of this year, another pod of killer whales attacked boaters during an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar.

The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off.

No one was injured, but one of the team members Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”

Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 5-6.5 metres and weigh more than 3,600 kilograms, bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.

The behaviour defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that the two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.

With additional reporting from The Associated Press

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Orcas have attacked and sunk another boat in Europe — and experts warn there could be more attacks soon

A group of orcas known to attack boats in southwest Europe have sunk a 50-foot sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar after ripping open its hull. It is the fifth time these killer whales have sent a ship to the seafloor in the last three years.

Orcas that have been terrorizing boats in southwest Europe have just sank their fifth yacht in three years. And experts have warned that more attacks are likely in the coming months after the orcas unexpectedly switched up their behavior earlier this year.

On Sunday (May 12), an unknown number of orcas ( Orcinus orca ) attacked the 49-foot-long (15 meters) sailing yacht named the Alboran Cognac in the Strait of Gibraltar — a narrow body of water between southern Spain and North Africa that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. During the attack, which began at around 9 a.m. local time, the killer whales repeatedly rammed the boat's hull and rudder, Reuters reported . 

The yacht's two-person crew radioed for help and was rescued by a passing oil tanker. But the vessel's hull sustained serious damage during the attack and the yacht began to take on water, which eventually caused it to sink, Reuters reported.

The attack was likely carried out by a growing number of individuals from the Iberian subpopulation of orcas — a group of around 40 killer whales that live off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Gibraltar — that have been attacking boats across their range since 2020. 

Most of the attacks occur between May and August each year in and around the Strait of Gibraltar. However, earlier this year, some of the highly social apex predators were spotted circling a boat in northern Spain , suggesting they have spread out much further and earlier than normal.

As a result, the Spanish authorities have warned recreational boaters to avoid sailing too far from the coast and to not stop their vessels if they are approached by orcas, according to a translated statement from Spain's Maritime Safety and Rescue Society.

Related: Orcas are learning terrifying new behaviors. Are they getting smarter?

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Since the attacks started in 2020, sailors have reported around 700 interactions with orcas in the area, ranging from circling and nudging vessels to ramming, ripping apart and sinking boats, Reuters reported.

The most recent sinking event prior to this one occurred on Halloween last year when a pod of orcas sank a sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar after a near hour-long attack . Before then, at least three other boats were sunk in the region between 2022 and early 2023. However, no humans have been injured or killed.

During attacks, the orcas' most common tactic is to damage or rip off the vessel's rudder , which makes it impossible to steer the vehicles. Researchers believe this is a learned behavior, and eye-witnesses have previously reported seeing individuals seemingly teach other orcas how to do this . As a result, the number of attacks has increased over the last few years.

— 11 ways orcas show their terrifying intelligence

— How often do orcas attack humans?

— How orcas gained their 'killer' reputation

So far, at least 15 individuals have been linked to at least one attack in the region. But researchers believe the attacks can be traced back to a single female, named White Gladis, who may have been pregnant when she started harassing the boats. However, it is unclear exactly what sparked the attacks.

There has even been a suggestion that the behavior has spread beyond the Iberian population after an orca similarly attacked a boat in Scotland in 2023. However, this was an isolated incident, which makes it hard to link it to the Iberian attacks.

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology. His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023. 

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Killer Whales Attack Boats During International Race

By Malorie Thompson

Recently, reports are out about orcas attacking boats .

Some believe the orcas are teaching their young to attack boats, and their attacks have even led to some boats being sunken entirely.

It seems the killer whales don’t have plans on slowing down anytime soon. Multiple boaters participating in an international race called The Ocean Race have reported orca attacks.

In a press release from the The Ocean Race, the organization explained two VO65 boats had “scary” encounters with orcas during a three-leg version of the race called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint .

During the attacks, the orcas pushed up against the boats or rammed at them, and even bit at the rudders. Thankfully, the press release notes that there were no injures associated with the attacks. Furthermore, both boats were able to sail away from the encounters.

Skipper Jelmer van Beek recalled the incident, saying, “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team. We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily, after a few attacks, they went away… This was a scary moment.”

One of the boats managed to film part of the attack so you can check it out for yourself:

Waning: The following video contains strong language. It may not be suitable for all viewers.

While scientists are still trying to understand the new behavior, it does appear to be spreading from older orcas to younger orcas. It’ll be interesting to see how their behavior continues to shift toward boats in the future.

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Killer Whales Attack Boats During International Race

Recently, reports are out about orcas attacking boats .

Some believe the orcas are teaching their young to attack boats, and their attacks have even led to some boats being sunken entirely.

It seems the killer whales don't have plans on slowing down anytime soon. Multiple boaters participating in an international race called The Ocean Race have reported orca attacks.

In a press release from the The Ocean Race, the organization explained two VO65 boats had "scary" encounters with orcas during a three-leg version of the race called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint .

During the attacks, the orcas pushed up against the boats or rammed at them, and even bit at the rudders. Thankfully, the press release notes that there were no injures associated with the attacks. Furthermore, both boats were able to sail away from the encounters.

Skipper Jelmer van Beek recalled the incident, saying, "Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team. We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily, after a few attacks, they went away… This was a scary moment."

One of the boats managed to film part of the attack so you can check it out for yourself:

Waning: The following video contains strong language. It may not be suitable for all viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1rqcI2jULY

While scientists are still trying to understand the new behavior, it does appear to be spreading from older orcas to younger orcas. It'll be interesting to see how their behavior continues to shift toward boats in the future.

Malorie works as a writer and editor in Northern California. She's passionate about food, conscious living, animal welfare, and conservation. She's worked with a variety of publications in different sectors but is happiest covering topics close to her heart. When not at her laptop, Malorie can be found enjoying picnics on the beach, hiking in the redwoods, and spending time with her rescue pup, Jax.

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Crazy Video Of Whale Destroying Boat In Ocean Goes Viral

The ocean is a scary place.

On Tuesday, a wild video of a killer whale capsizing a boat in the open ocean is going viral on social media.

Onlookers from a different boat captured the video of the massive mammal destroying a fishing boat out in the ocean. The incident reportedly took place in Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire.

The video has nearly one million views.

"There is a (ticked) off whale patrolling the waters of Portsmouth NH today. Head on swivel if you’re out there," former NHL player Ryan Whitney shared on social media.

"This why I never go sailing" one fan wrote.

"This is, by far, one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. So magnificent!! I pray the world keeps saving the whales," one fan added.

"This is crazy - whales don't do that by accident," one fan added.

"Damn, that guy reacted just in time to get out of there," another fan added.

Killer whales, also known as orcas, are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth. So, there was likely a reason for this attack, rather than it being a random incident.

Keep your head on a swivel when you're out in the ocean, that's for sure.

Related: The 5 Best College Football Cheerleading Squads

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For more audio journalism and storytelling, download New York Times Audio , a new iOS app available for news subscribers.

The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump

What we know about the shooting at a rally in pennsylvania..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. And this is The Daily. [MUSIC PLAYING]

The nation is waking up to a new reality after former President Donald Trump was injured in an apparent assassination attempt.

Gunshots ripping through a Pennsylvania campaign rally and carving their way into the history book.

I heard pop, pop.

I think a lot of people in the crowd just thought it was fireworks going off. I knew immediately it was gunshots.

And everybody screaming drop. And you can see the blood, like, splatter on his face. And the Secret Service just barricades him. And, you know, it was just, like, so scary.

Senior law enforcement officials say the gunman was a 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania.

A gunman was on the roof of a building several hundred feet from the lectern where Trump was speaking. Joining us —

— what we know about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.

I just go back to this idea that something has been fundamentally changed. People are desperate for answers to figure out how this could have happened, how to prevent it.

My colleague, photographer Doug Mills, recounts what it was like to witness the shooting. And reporter Glenn Thrush on the state of the investigation into the man who did it.

It’s Monday, July 15.

Well, this is him. I have to reroute through this thing, though. Hold on.

Hey, Sabrina. How are you?

How are you?

Oh, still a little shaken up, actually. Never thought I’d ever be in a situation like this or be part of a story like this. It’s not something I ever dreamed of having happened in my career. And it shakes you up. I mean, it’s pretty damn frightening.

Doug Mills has been photographing presidents for “The Times” for the past 40 years. I spoke to him on Saturday night about four hours after the shooting.

What’s in your head right now?

My first thought is obviously I am thankful that the former President is not more seriously injured than he is. I’m saddened that other people lost their life.

I mean, as much as I cover president of the United States, whether it’s former President Trump, or President Biden, or President Obama, all the way back to Reagan, it seems, you know, more and more intense and more and more divided, and sadly, scarier as the days go on.

And just having this happen in front of you, and I’m sitting here in the car, and I’m in a dark parking lot. And I’m, you know, just hearing those gunshots.

Where were you? How far from the former President were you?

When the shots came from him, I was probably less than three feet from him, maybe four at the most, because I was right up against the stage, and he was directly above me.

Oh, my God. Doug, you yourself could have been hit.

Believe me, Sabrina. When he was whisked off, I turned around. And I saw people scattering. And I thought, oh, my God, I was right in the line.

My heart was pounding through my chest. And I was shaking. And I was just, like, I can’t believe this happened.

So tell me exactly what you saw through your camera lens, Doug? What were you looking at right before? And then what did you see exactly at the moment that it happened?

I was focused on the president as he was making his remarks. There was a huge flag, American flag above him flying. I was trying to do something that showed him on the podium and him with the flag up there.

And I was in the right moment, as far as concentrating and being right there so I could see him. [BACKGROUND REMARKS]

And then the former President was making remarks. He was gesturing towards his right. And when he put his hand out to gesture —

Take a look at what happened.

[GUNSHOTS FIRED] Oh.

[CROWD SCREAMING]

There were these three or four loud pops. And I just kept taking pictures. And it all became a blur. I just kept my finger on the shutter.

And then he grabbed his ear and then fell from behind the podium. I didn’t see him behind the Trump sign. And I ran to the left to try and see what was going on.

And by that time, he was being covered by the Secret Service. And there was a lot of yelling and pushing and, you know, just them trying to protect him and getting over top of him. I’m positive I heard them say, “Sir, sir, sir,” you know, and I think they were just trying to see how bad he was hit.

And after that, it was very chaotic. There was a lot of, like, move back, get out of the way, move back.

Did you know where the gunman was?

No. I only knew that the pops came definitely from my left ear. I could hear it very loud. So I assumed that’s where they came from.

And did that person continue to shoot?

I thought I heard maybe two or three more shots.

After the former President disappeared from your lens?

Correct yeah. And I don’t know if that was the Secret Service shooting back at that point, but I did hear more than the first three or four. I mean, they were very quick which, now that I look back, I was an idiot to be that close. But instincts just brought me closer to the stage to try and see what was going on.

[CROWD CONFUSION]

And then when they brought him up, I thought my god, he’s OK. He’s alive. And then he put his fist up.

And then as he got closer to the steps, he kind of stopped with the agents. And I could tell the agents were trying to put their arms over him to shield him. And he was defying and putting his fist up. And he didn’t say anything, but he just pumped his fist.

What did you think when you saw Trump do that? You captured that moment. What did you think when he did that?

Aw, he was just so just pissed off, like, defiant. That’s all that I could think of is God, he’s mad as hell. He is really mad.

You know, the image that you took of former President Trump pumping his fist in the air with the blood on his face, with the Secret Service all huddled around him, the one you referenced, this photo, is in many ways already becoming really the iconic photo of this moment, defining the episode in history, really. Did you know immediately that would be the case?

I didn’t, Sabrina. I didn’t. I didn’t know, you know, because it was happening so fast.

And at that point, my camera went from in my eye to lifting it up above me. And just because there were people in front of me. I just had no idea that it would be the image it is until I saw it on the camera afterwards, when I was shaking and looking at my pictures thinking, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

You know, it brings chills to me. It is definitely an image that I’ll think about when I close my eyes tonight to go to sleep at some wee hour in the morning.

Doug, there’s one photograph you took with a kind of blurred moving image, and it looks like it might actually be a bullet, a bullet streaking past the former President. Can you talk about that photo? Is that actually one of the bullets?

I never thought that I would have a picture of the bullet behind him. But after the event had happened and I’m looking through my camera at pictures that I’m going to send to the office, and I said to the editor, Jennifer, “Listen, Jen, I’m sending you the sequence of when he was speaking, when the shots rang out. And please look at them closely.”

Because at that point, there were speculation that he was not shot. And I called Maggie, one of our reporters, Maggie Haberman, and said, “Hey, Maggie, I definitely think he was shot. Because he looks to his right. He flinches. He grabs his ear. His hand has blood on it at that point. And then he went down.”

So when I asked Jen, can you look at him closely, and Jen said, I will. And she literally texted me back a minute later and said, you won’t believe this. We think there’s a picture of the bullet flying behind the former president’s head. And I said, what? And I’m getting chills now because now that I’ve seen the picture, and I am looking at the sequence because there’s nothing there, nothing there, nothing there, and then it’s right behind his head.

Well, of course, we haven’t at this hour, 9:54 PM exactly confirmed that this is the image of the bullet that hurt him. But it certainly seems like it could be that you captured the exact moment that he got shot.

I mean, from what I can tell, it’s definitely a bullet that was fired at him. Whether it hit him or not is TBD. I just don’t know at this time, like you said.

Doug, you said that when this shooting happened, that your instinct was to keep your finger on the shutter. And, you know, that’s a pretty unique instinct. It’s a photographer instinct, and I love that.

I’m assuming that’s all your accumulated experience over the decades, you referenced this earlier, but you’ve covered presidents for four decades. You’ve captured the most historic moments, probably present for more of the history in our country than any other journalist in Washington. How are you thinking about this event in the context of all of the others that you’ve been present for?

Yeah, this is by far the most remarkable and sad situation that I’ve ever witnessed, you know? Seeing a person running for president of the United States, someone’s trying to end their life. And, as a photographer, you hope that if you’re there for that day that you’re able to do your job and then you’re in the right place to do your job. And that’s all I kept thinking as I was trying to run around the stage, trying just to see how the president was doing. And I hope I didn’t blink.

I hopefully captured what happened. And that’s what my job is to record history. And this is definitely one of those historic moments that, sadly, I was a part of. But also I’m grateful that I didn’t flinch, and I didn’t blink, and I wasn’t shot. So I’m grateful for that.

Yes. You were our witness, Doug.

Well, thank you, Sabrina.

We’ll be right back.

Glenn, you’ve been reporting on the investigation into the shooting at President Trump’s rally on Saturday. We’re talking to you at 4:55 PM on Sunday. Before we get to the details of what’s been found so far, what do we know about how Trump is doing, how he’s been in the hours since the shooting?

Remarkably well. While it was sort of shocking on television, you could see the blood splatter across his cheek, it was an injury on his ear. But his injuries were relatively minimal. He was cleared at a local hospital, flew back to his golf resort at Bedminster in New Jersey, and has made it entirely clear that he doesn’t have any intention to skip the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.

And do we know for sure it was a bullet that hit him?

That’s a little bit ambiguous. There were some reports that he was injured by flying glass from his teleprompter. But in a Truth Social post, he said he was shot by a bullet. And in a conference call today with the FBI, they refused to address the issue at all.

Got it. And what about the people in the crowd who were also hit?

One man was killed. His name is Corey Comperatore, and he was apparently shielding his family from the gunfire. And in addition, two other bystanders, were seriously injured and they were taken to the hospital.

So Glenn, what is the picture that law enforcement has pieced together about what happened on Saturday?

Well, the FBI and Department of justice are investigating this as an assassination attempt and also a potential incident of domestic terrorism. And here’s the picture that they’ve compiled.

It started off as a regular Trump rally. Everything seemed to be in order. People were in a good mood. Trump started speaking at around 6:00 PM. And roughly 10 minutes into his speech, Trump was talking about immigration.

That’s when a gunshot is heard. Trump stops mid-sentence, then he flinches. Trump then clutched his ear, and you could see the splatter of blood across his cheeks.

Then another two shots are quickly fired, and he ducks behind the podium. And almost immediately, this whole clutch of Secret Service agents surrounds Trump. And then you hear a burst of about five more shots.

The crowd was completely disoriented. Some people were sort of cheering. Other people started screaming.

And you could see behind Trump that folks were responding to those people who had been injured. At some point, a Secret Service sniper shoots back and kills the shooter. We know from looking at footage that at this point he’s lying dead on a rooftop about 4 to 500 feet away from Trump. And some of the images show an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle laying near his body.

The Secret Service are still laying on top of Trump shielding him. Then you hear, a couple of seconds later, “Shooter down, shooter down.” And it’s at that point that they start to move. The agents that surround him, kind of in a shell, slowly move him off stage.

And the thing I found most extraordinary, having covered Trump on and off all these years, is how quickly, when he realized that he was physically OK, that he pivoted to a complete understanding of what the image was, what the moment meant politically.

And there’s just this extraordinary moment of defiance where he balls his fists, and the crowd starts to chant, “USA, USA, USA.” I just can’t emphasize how extraordinary that was.

And just, like, he had this instinct that this may have been a horrific event, but he was somehow seeing it as a political one. He was making use of it and really connecting with the people at the rally.

Somebody who worked with Trump for many years said this to me a long time ago. A lot of other politicians play the music. They can read the notes. Trump can hear the music. And that was one of those moments where he intuitively understood the moment, understood the image, understood the sound, and behaved in a way that maximized his position going forward. It was really, really something else.

OK. So on the shooter, it wasn’t that he somehow passed through a security check or evaded a security check. He was just completely outside the zone that the Secret Service considered the zone of danger, right?

The shooter was completely outside the event on a warehouse roof outside of where Trump was speaking. There’s some reporting that he may have attempted to get in earlier, but part of the complication here was that he wasn’t actually within the perimeter of the event itself.

Got it. And what is the Secret Service saying about why it was that that building, with an apparent clear shot of the podium, was outside the perimeter?

Well, the Secret Service is an independent security agency that’s responsible for the protection of the president and other senior American officials. Candidates get protection as well.

But they don’t operate in isolation. When they come to a town, they often coordinate with local law enforcement. Sometimes you’ll see, for instance, state police sealing off highways when the motorcade comes through.

Well, oftentimes Secret Service will have control over the event itself while local law enforcement is tasked with controlling things outside of the perimeter. That appears to have been what happened in Pennsylvania. There were four counter-sniper teams on Saturday, two Secret Service and two local. And the building outside the perimeter would typically have been under the purview of local law enforcement.

Got it. So basically, Secret Service was taking care of security inside the lines of that perimeter. And local law enforcement was taking care of the security outside those lines. And that’s where the shooter was shooting from, outside the lines. Do we know what happened with local law enforcement there, how this shooter getting to the top of a roof ended up kind of falling through the cracks for them?

Nobody’s quite sure. But the speed with which this happened seems to have been an important dynamic. It wasn’t like this guy was camped out for hours. It appears that he scrambled up onto the roof of the warehouse, moving rather quickly, and planted himself and then fired. So there wasn’t a lot of time for law enforcement to react, apparently.

And what do we know so far about the shooter? What have investigators learned?

His name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. He is 20 years old. He’s from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, which is about 40 miles from the scene of the shooting.

He was generally regarded in school as a quiet, intelligent guy. And he’d been working as a dietary aide at a local nursing home. And investigators told us that he was interested in chess and that he had recently taken up computer coding.

And what did the authorities say about his motive?

They don’t know. That is the big question. The public record is very scant.

He is a registered Republican. This would have been his first presidential election voting. And it appears that he gave $15, according to some reports, to a group that generally identifies as liberal.

But mostly, I would say, investigators are exasperated by the lack of any kind of directionality in terms of what his motivation or political beliefs have been. He has, for instance, not written any kind of a political manifesto, and there aren’t even a trail of social media posts to fall back on. They’re really hoping that once they are able to breach his cell phone, that that will unlock a trove of information that will point them in the right direction. But he really is an enigmatic character right now.

Do authorities think his attack was highly planned? And is there any indication that more attacks were planned?

Nobody really knows. The gun that he used was purchased by his father. Authorities are not clear whether or not his father gave it to him, lent it to him, or if he took it from his father. But they don’t believe his father bought it on his behalf.

What they did find were some explosive devices. There were apparently some canisters found in the car that he had been driving, which served the purpose of delaying the investigation for hours and hours yesterday as the bomb squad removed and deactivated these devices. And a law enforcement official told me that there was also a suspicious device found at his residence. So he clearly had some knowledge of both firearms and explosives, but they aren’t sure where he picked it up and what he intended to do.

So this, of course, as you know, is the first time in about 40 years that a current or former president has been wounded in an assassination attempt. Ronald Reagan, of course, was shot in 1981. What fundamentally went wrong here? Is there any way to see this other than as a colossal failure by the Secret Service?

I think this is going to be regarded as one of the darkest days in the history of the Secret Service. Now, all of us who have covered the White House have traveled with agents, tremendously high level of professionalism. And the job is difficult, bordering on impossible at times.

But allowing someone to have a clear firing line to a major presidential candidate in the middle of this kind of highly polarized environment is frankly inconceivable. And I think the other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and folks at the Department of Justice, were fairly unvarnished in private in their criticism of the way that the Secret Service planned this.

So there are a lot of unanswered questions. And some lawmakers have called for there to be a significant investigation of this. And the House Oversight Committee will call the head of the Secret Service to testify over the next couple of weeks.

What has Trump said since the shooting?

He’s been relatively muted. I think one of the really amazing moments and something which has been kind of overlooked, Joe Biden called up Donald Trump. And they seem to have had a civil exchange. I think it was this very, very rare and brief moment of comity in this campaign, which is just suffused with negativity and hostility.

And then Trump called for national unity. And he’s basically kind of kept up that vibe for the past 24 hours. But in his signature defiant way, he wrote, in a text message to supporters, I will never surrender. And on Truth Social, he called for his supporters to stand united and not to allow, quote, evil to win.

But he really seems to be toeing the line between his typical bombast and adopting a tone which is a little more conciliatory at a moment when Americans of all political stripes are extremely uneasy. And many are just, frankly, terrified.

And what have been the other reactions to this assassination attempt? What’s been happening in Washington? What have people been saying?

Democrats and administration officials have called for unity, essentially saying that this was not just an attack on Trump, but an attack on democracy.

Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick.

President Biden made it very clear in a couple of appearances over the weekend that he condemned the violence.

We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.

And said that this kind of reaction, regardless of your political stance, was completely unacceptable. Republicans had a wider range of reactions. There were some in the party who took a measured approach.

Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.

Like from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

You have political opposition and political opponents, but we’re all Americans. And we have to treat one another with dignity and respect.

But you also heard some Republicans taking a far different approach. You had people like Mike Collins, a kind of a firebrand Republican from Georgia, writing on social media that Joe Biden sent the orders to shoot Donald Trump.

Obviously, there’s no evidence for that.

I do believe that Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting today.

And you had Lauren Boebert from Colorado in a television interview saying Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting.

Everyone who has called him a fascist, everyone who has called him a threat to democracy, who said that he should be —

Essentially saying that it was Democratic rhetoric that caused this. Again, there’s been no evidence whatsoever yet that the shooter was motivated by that kind of rhetoric. But that was a common Republican talking point that you saw emerging, to say that using all of this description of Trump as an existential threat to democracy had somehow whipped up people to enact violent acts.

OK. So there are some crosscurrents of rhetoric here in the aftermath of the shooting. And we see some signs of unity. But it seems undeniable that this is a very fraught political moment. How much have you been hearing in your reporting about the possibility of further violence?

It’s a huge fear. And it’s building upon concerns that FBI and Justice Department officials have talked to us about for months and months and months, that they are worried about violence springing up in this election.

On a call on Sunday, they reiterated that the threat level is really high. For months, they’ve been telling us that they’re worried about shootings, spawning copycats. And also, outside of violence, it’s this wave of misinformation that tends to accompany these big events that can also create a bad cycle. People get whipped up and that, in turn, incites more violence.

So I think there is a level of tremendous uncertainty. And political conventions, as we have seen in years past, are a gathering point for all kinds of folks. Mostly people who are engaged in peaceful protests, but it’s also been catalytic for individuals who want to create all kinds of problems.

I think if there is a silver lining, it is that this near miss, this near national catastrophe has alerted law enforcement agencies, particularly the Secret Service, to up their vigilance to the highest possible level. So to a certain extent, like a near-miss of an airliner potentially crashing, it might have the positive impact of having people pay more attention at a time of what appears to be maximum danger.

Glenn, what happens now? I mean, you mentioned political conventions. The Republican National Convention is starting on Monday. Do we have any idea of how that event will play out, given what just happened, how this changes things?

Well, first and foremost, I think you’re going to see a level of security at both conventions that’s unprecedented. In terms of the political impact, that’s a little harder to predict. This presents Donald Trump with an enormous opportunity to reset his image, but it’s an entirely unpredictable political environment. And the situation could change.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I think its greatest meaning, its most resonant meaning is that our politics is changing and moving into a darker and more dangerous place. And the question is, are we entering an age where political violence becomes commonplace? Or is this a moment where we realize collectively that this is not the future we can accept?

And what happens in the next few days is going to be quite important to help give an answer to that.

Glenn, thank you.

Here’s what else you should know today. On Saturday, Israel conducted a major airstrike in the Southern Gaza Strip that it said targeted Hamas’ top military commander, who was allegedly one of the architects of the October 7th attack on Israel. Gazan health authorities said that at least 90 people died in the assault. But by Sunday night, it was not clear whether the commander targeted in the strike, Mohammed Deif, was among them.

Today’s episode was produced by Rob Szypko, Shannon Lin, Lynsea Garrison, and Stella Tan with help from Carlos Prieto. It was edited by Patricia Willens with help from Paige Cowett, fact checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Pat McCusker, and Sophia Lanman and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Beth Flynn, Simon Levien, and Jessica Metzger.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

• July 24, 2024   •   28:02 The Lingering Questions about the Attempt to Kill Trump
• July 23, 2024   •   28:03 The New Hope, and New Worry, of Kamala Harris
• July 22, 2024   •   32:04 Joe Biden Drops Out
• July 19, 2024   •   35:10 At the Republican Convention, Trump Achieves Mythical Status
• July 18, 2024   •   41:29 Trump 2.0: He’s Never Sounded Like This Before
• July 17, 2024   •   25:48 The Surprise Ending to the Mar-a-Lago Documents Case
• July 16, 2024   •   28:27 Trump Picks His Running Mate, and Political Heir
• July 15, 2024   •   31:26 The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump
• July 14, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘A Republican Election Clerk vs. Trump Die-Hards in a World of Lies’
• July 12, 2024   •   27:43 Loving Their Pets to Debt
• July 11, 2024   •   35:40 72 Hours Inside Biden’s Campaign to Save His Candidacy
• July 10, 2024   •   32:25 Why Britain Just Ended 14 Years of Conservative Rule

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Featuring Doug Mills and Glenn Thrush

Produced by Rob Szypko ,  Shannon M. Lin ,  Lynsea Garrison and Stella Tan

With Carlos Prieto

Edited by Patricia Willens and Paige Cowett

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Pat McCusker ,  Sophia Lanman and Diane Wong

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Today’s episode sets out what we know about the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening.

Doug Mills, a photographer for The Times, recounts what it was like to witness the shooting, and Glenn Thrush, who covers gun violence for The Times, discusses the state of the investigation into the man who did it.

On today’s episode

Doug Mills , a photographer in the Washington bureau of The New York Times.

Glenn Thrush , who reports on the Justice Department for The New York Times.

Background reading

What we know about the assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump.

A Times photographer who was feet away from Mr. Trump describes the shooting.

The gunman appears to have acted alone, but his motives remain unclear .

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Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Michael Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson, Nina Lassam and Nick Pitman.

An earlier version of this episode referred imprecisely to Doug Mills’s experience photographing presidents. He has been photographing U.S. presidents since 1983, but   joined The New York Times in 2002.

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Doug Mills has been a photographer in the Washington bureau of The Times since 2002. He previously worked at The Associated Press, where he won two Pulitzer Prizes. His Instagram is @nytmills . More about Doug Mills

Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons. More about Glenn Thrush

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