The Nautilus Project have launched a new marine science app, ‘Orcinus’, which will facilitate safer marine navigation using geolocation to track orcas
Working closely with the BDRI (Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute) based in Galicia, Spain, Nautilus are delighted to launch its second marine science app ‘Orcinus’ on both Android and iOS.
The new app records the presence of orcas in real time and shares this information with the entire community of Orcinus app users.
Reports of sightings instantly provide navigators with data to aid in planning their routes.
“The main objective of Orcinus is to contribute to safer navigation making it possible to find out both in advance and instantaneously of killer whales in the area, geolocated by other vessels that will have recorded their sightings,” TNP said.
“Given the recent issues that have arisen with interactions with these mammals during recreational sailing, the app will help with safe passage for both these magnificent creatures and sailors alike.”
The app, endorsed by the Xunta of Galicia, is now officially launched in Spain throughout all the national Ports.
TNP said it is extremely grateful to Aaron and Natalia from MGI Limited for the swift, professional development of the app.
The Nautilus Project have launched their second app today.
The Orcinus app is a reporting and tracking app which allows users to view and make reports relating to Orca whale sightings and encounters across the world.
The new app records the presence of orcas in real time and shares this information with the entire community of Orcinus app users. Reports of sightings instantly provide navigators with data to aid planning their routes
The main objective of Orcinus is to contribute to safer navigation making it possible to find out both in advance and instantaneously of killer whales in the area, geolocated by other vessels that will have recorded their sightings
Given the recent issues that have arisen with interactions with these mammals during recreational sailing, the app will help with safe passage for both these magnificent creatures and sailors alike
The app, endorsed by the Xunta of Galicia, is now officially launched throughout all the national Ports with over 3000 active users already.
A statement continued: “Our thanks to the Young Enterprise groups that supported the event showcasing their products. The occasion was shared with different local seafarers, the Minister for the Environment, our charity trustees and Patron, and some of our Duke of Edinburgh participants. Special thanks to Gibraltar Sports & Leisure Authority for the conference rooms and to Aaron and Natalia for making the magic happen. We continue making waves!”
18th May 2023
Orcinus, a marine science orca-sighting app that was developed by The Nautilus Project, scooped the top prize at the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses’ Business Innovation Awards on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Legal Balance, a coaching service aimed at helping “lawyers turn into rainmakers”, came in as runner-up.
The Business Innovation Awards were held at the Sapphire Bar in the Sunborn on Tuesday and featured six finalists from local companies.
Each business had three minutes to present their businesses.
The competition was tough this year and the work was cut out for the judges, the GFSB’s Eran Shay and Kathryn Morgan, as well as Gibtelecom’s Danny Hook, to select the winners.
The other finalists that formed part of the competition were Truly Conscious, a mental health and well-being company that uses various holistic practices to help individuals, businesses and athletes; Purple Media, a marketing and media agency based in Gibraltar that helps clients achieve their goals using Artificial Intelligence; and content and marketing agency Motion (Gibraltar) Ltd, founded by David Revagliatte, who launched the GFSB Business Podcast during the Covid pandemic.
Now in its fourth season, the podcast has spoken to a range of businesses and stakeholders in Gibraltar’s economy.
Finally, Rock Learning last year launched the Ethical Gambling Forum which this year saw interested parties from other jurisdictions travel to Gibraltar for the event.
Jo Abergel, Director of Rock Learning, told judges that, in one year, the event was able to double the number of attendees, and bring together different regulators, operators and companies all under one roof.
“As always the decision has been very, very difficult and it has been a tough judging process,” Mr Shay told the finalists.
“As part of our judging process we have been looking at what is the innovation brought by businesses.”
“It can be something that is completely innovative but it can also be something that is completely innovative to Gibraltar.”
Employability, changing the way things are done, environmental factors, the impact these businesses have, the level of investment and how they showcase the Rock also formed part of the decision process.
ORCINUS
Marine biologist and founder of The Nautilus Project, Lewis Stagnetto, was surprised to win the Business Innovation Award.
Orcinus is a marine science app that helps sailors in the Strait of Gibraltar monitor and report sightings of orcas.
The aim is to facilitate safer marine navigation for both sailors and the animals themselves by using geolocation to track them.
Mr Stagnetto worked closely with the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute based in Galicia, Spain, and the app has been endorsed by the Xunta de Galicia.
“The purpose of this app is to solve a real world problem which is the negative interaction that is happening between orcas and boats,” Mr Stagnetto told the Chronicle.
“In terms of take up, the app was launched in January and since then we have had some 3,000 people sign up, and we have already got a growing community of sailors.”
“Since that time we have had a massive amount of sightings, to date we have had 250 individual sightings of orcas with different interaction levels, showing where the animals are.”
The data from these sightings is being collected and will be analysed by marine scientists to better understand these “negative interactions” between orcas and vessels.
Mr Stagnetto believes this is happening for a number of reasons.
“The animals that are doing this are basically teenagers,” Mr Stagnetto said.
“In our species the juveniles are probably the ones that get up to no good the most, and they also experiment the most.”
“There is an idea permeating the scientific community is that they are honing their hunting skills.”
“If they are in the Strait their main food source is Bluefin Tuna and an adult orca can eat up to 250kg of food a day.”
“And what these orcas are doing is sharpening their skills on the rudders of boats that cut through the water like the Bluefin Tuna, they are using this to practice.”
Mr Stagnetto said another theory is that fishing for tuna in the Strait is “creating a pressure” for the orcas to be able to find their food, adding that it is “exacerbating the problem”.
Within Gibraltar, the sailing schools are using the Orcinus app, and it has also been used by sailors passing through Gibraltar.
“We want to understand as well as possible the hotspots of activity, where it is happening, potentially why it is happening and how we can try to manage this at a higher level to try and protect the sailors and animals,” Mr Stagnetto said about the data that is being gathered.
LEGAL BALANCE
Amanda and Scott Simmons founded Legal Balance in the UK and moved to Gibraltar some two years ago where they operate their firm.
The company helps to train and coach lawyers on how to bring businesses to their firms, and they work with small independent lawyers, start-ups and bigger companies around the world.
Although Gibraltar has many lawyers, this was not their intention when they came here.
“These issues are global,” Mr Simmons told the Chronicle.
“Stress, suicide, burnout, they are global across the entire industry and what we are trying to do is the little things we can to bring about the change that helps lawyers, the legal industry and clients as well to help move the industry forward.”
Mrs Simmons said the pressures of pricing and billing hours impacts all lawyers in the trade.
“We have a lot of female clients as well because I think they sometimes need that extra help,” Mrs Simmons added.
“Because this is a very male-dominated industry, women sometimes need that extra coaching and reassurance when they are reaching those higher ranks and want to bring in that extra work.”
Mr Simmons said the service gives women that “extra boost in confidence”, adding that, in the UK, 50% of lawyers are women but that number is not reflected in the number of female partners.
At present they only have one client in Gibraltar but hope to change things going forward and expand their business going forward.
Killer whales attack a sailing boat off the coast of Morocco - Stephen Bidwell / SWNS
A vengeful killer whale called Gladis is teaching gangs of orcas to attack yachts around Gibraltar, and has already struck three boats - sinking two of them.
It may read like something out of Moby Dick, but in this case the truth is stranger than fiction.
Researchers believe that a female orca called White Gladis is seeking revenge after being traumatised by a collision with a boat, or being trapped in illegal fishing nets.
Her attacks are now being copied by the rest of the nearby killer whale population, which has learnt how to ram vessels from their ringleader.
The matriarch is tutoring younger whales in the art of sinking boats; raising the prospect of future generations continuing the war on humans for years.
On May 2, six of the apex predators slammed into the hull of a Bavaria 46 yacht, which was sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar, near Tangier in Morocco.
The hour-long attack left Cambridge couple Janet Morris, 58, a business consultant, and Stephen Bidwell, 58, a photographer, who were on board for a sailing course, in awe.
The couple were below deck, when the cry of “orcas!” went up.
“It’s an experience I will never forget,” Mr Bidwell told the Telegraph.
“I kept reminding myself we had a 22-ton boat made of steel, but seeing three of them coming at once, quickly and at pace with their fins out of the water was daunting.”
"I couldn't believe it when I saw them," said Ms Morris, 58, “We were sitting ducks.”
“A clearly larger matriarch was definitely around and was almost supervising,” Mr Bidwell told the Telegraph before conceding he could have come face to face with White Gladis herself.
“The experience left us in awe of nature and her power”.
Skipper Greg Blackburn, from Leeds, was already dealing with “heavy weather" of 25-30 knot winds and a rolling swell of six to 10 feet when the whales hit his rudder with two large blows.
Small boats have been ordered to avoid the coast between Barbate and Cape Trafalgar, following numerous incidents of Orcas ramming vessels.
The Government has said though the killer whales don’t frequent British Gibraltar Territorial waters, boat owners outside of these should follow the advice of the relevant authorities.
During the last year or so, incidents of Orcas ramming boats and often damaging them have become more frequent. Though incidents aren’t as frequent in BGTW, some have occurred in the Strait.
The most recent case was a superyacht that was rammed by a pod of killer whales, with damage to the rudder so severe that crew were brought to Gibraltar but the vessel was deemed too damaged for use.
Scientists have speculated that the unusual behavior could be a result of stress due to a scarcity of food caused by overfishing.
The action taken by Spanish authorities will limit boats of 15 metres of less from sailing within nine miles of the coast between Barbate and Cape Trafalgar.
The decision follows 56 incidents of orca encounters since the first one earlier this year in March.
In a statement, Spain’s Transport Ministry says that 25 of those incidents required the vessels to be towed into port due to such serious damage.
The restrictions will remain in place until the 20th August but is subject to review.
Considering how humans have demonstrated how awful they treat the planet, the animals and the people on it, it is not surprising the orcas are ramming boats. EMF (radiation) may be an issue too.
Orcas are aggressive, predatory sea mammals that eat many sea creatures. Humans are killing off the orca's food supply. Perhaps, that is why they are coming after the humans: for survival.
There have been 68 incidents reported of orcas ramming into pleasure crafts navigating in the Strait of Gibraltar so far this year, with a recent incident taking place just outside of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters last week.
This took place last Tuesday some six nautical miles south of Europa Point, along with three other incidents reported on the same day.
A vessel crossing from Algeciras to Ceuta was also attacked, as well as another in the Camarinal area in Tarifa.
Although there was no serious damage or injuries caused there was concern for other small vessels operating in the area when the Salvamento Maritimo in Tarifa received the complaints.
Although reports of the cetaceans approaching vessels have become more frequent in the Strait of Gibraltar, it is not a regular occurrence in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters.
A spokesman for the Ministry for the Environment told the Chronicle that it has since been informed that the orcas have been sighted back in Punta Camarinal in Cadiz, Spain.
All four collisions on Tuesday took place in the Exclusion Zone declared by the Port of Algeciras, and a formal investigation will be launched after one of the boats was found to have breached a resolution imposed by the Spanish Ministry of Transport.
This resolution prevents vessels that are 15 metres or smaller from sailing between Cape Trafalgar and Barbate, in an area between two miles and nine miles from the coastline.
This comes after a sharp increase in the number of collisions with orcas reported to authorities, with 68 reports received this year alone.
On 22 occasions, Salvamento Maritimo has had to intervene and help tow small pleasure crafts to safety.
By comparison, there were only three reported incidents of orcas ramming into vessels in the Strait in 2020.
Scientists studying the unusual behaviour of these animals is still unknown, adding that it is not clear whether orcas intentionally attack the vessels or simply interacting with them.
They have also speculated that this could be the result of stress due to scarcity of food as a result of overfishing in the area.
Orcas have attacked and sunk a third boat off the Iberian coast of Europe, and experts now believe the behavior is being copied by the rest of the population.
Three orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as killer whales, struck the yacht on the night of May 4 in the Strait of Gibraltar, off the coast of Spain, and pierced the rudder. “There were two smaller and one larger orca,” skipper Werner Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht. “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.”
Horrifying footage shows orcas attacking British couple’s yacht
But why? Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same
A collision with orcas caused a leak in a sailboat in the Strait this morning.
Salvamento Marítimo assisted a sailboat with four crew members on board early this morning after it suffered a water leak following a collision with a group of orcas in the Strait.
The vessel, a 20-meter long sailboat named "Mustique," alerted the Tarifa coordination center around 22:00 hours, according to sources from the rescue operation.
They explained that the sailboat was navigating in Tarifa waters, heading towards Gibraltar when it collided with a group of orcas.
As a result of the impact, the boat's rudder was broken, leaving it adrift, and a water leak had opened, flooding the interior of the sailboat.
Salvamento Marítimo activated the "Salvamar Enif," which was in the area after rescuing the occupants of a small boat, and the "Helimer 222" helicopter, which transported a bilge pump.
The helicopter arrived at the scene at 23:11 hours and transferred the bilge pump to the Salvamento Marítimo vessel. They managed to pump out the water from the sailboat, enabling it to be towed, and also boarded the four crew members.
Finally, with all four rescued individuals in good health and the sailboat being towed, the "Salvamar Enif" arrived at the port of Barbate at 2:55 hours.
A video showing a pod of orcas attacking a yacht off Gibraltar has gone viral. However, the Nautilus project has told GBC this behaviour is ‘normal’ and not as sinister as is being reported in some media.
The incident, involving British sailor April Boyes, was filmed and uploaded onto her private Instagram account, where it has since been picked up by the international press. In a recent post, Ms Boyes claimed her story has been over-sensationalised, adding she does “not condone demonising the orcas”.
Ms Boyes, who was sailing with a crew of four on the Mustique, saw a pod of orcas in the waters near Gibraltar on Thursday morning. After switching the engine off in accordance with guidelines, she says the whales began to bump into the rudder continuously for over an hour, causing considerable damage and flooding to the vessel. The crew were forced to mayday the Spanish Maritime Rescue Service for assistance.
There have been numerous similar attacks in the area over the past few years, with Sky News quoting the Grupo Trabajo Orca Atlantica (GTOA) figure of at least 20 similar incidents this month alone in the Strait of Gibratar.
The Project's Lewis Stagnetto explained the juveniles in the pod were either being playful or learning how to hunt, and that these apex predators consume around 250 kilos of food a day.
Despite being known as killer whales, the endangered orcas are part of the dolphin family.
Killer whales are ramming boats off the coast of Spain in spate of deadly attacks to avenge orca matriarch Gladis after she was injured 'by boat or fishing net', experts say
Scientists say orca leader Gladis may have suffered 'critical moment of agony'
Three boats were recently sunk and hundreds attacked off Spain since 2020
Killer whales which have been ramming and sinking boats off the coast of Spain may be doing so to avenge their matriarch after she was struck by fishermen, experts have said amid a spate of attacks.
Transportes offers recommendations to navigators (sailing or motoring off the coast of S.W. Spain) in case of interactions with orcas.
The Ministry of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda (Mitma) has published a series of guidelines and recommendations for navigators in case of encounters with orcas in the Atlantic, with the aim of minimizing risks to the crew, the vessel, and the cetaceans.
Transportes suggests that navigators should use motor navigation instead of sailing if an interaction occurs. They also recommend that people on board avoid approaching the edges and seek shelter in safe areas of the boat in case of sudden movements. Most importantly, they advise not to stop the vessel but rather steer it towards shallower waters until the orcas lose interest.
The Ministry also recommends navigating as close to the coast as possible within safety limits to avoid encounters. It further informs that these guidelines have been agreed upon with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge and comply with regulations establishing measures for cetacean protection.
Additionally, in order to have as much information as possible before setting sail, a satellite map indicating the location of the orcas, provided by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, has been published. The map will be updated weekly as long as information on the location of the cetaceans is available.
The Ministry of Transport, through the General Directorate of Merchant Marine, requests that anyone experiencing interactions with orcas report it as soon as possible to the nearest Maritime Rescue Coordination Center. These centers are always available to navigators and will respond to any emergencies that may arise as a result of the encounter.
Furthermore, as long as it does not pose a danger to the crew or the animal, it is requested to take photographs of the involved orca specimens to have a better record and identification of these animals.
DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS WITH ORCAS
The Ministry's recommendations come after recent cases of interactions with orcas that have resulted in damage to vessels and rescue operations in the last month. Recently, two crew members of a sailboat named Take It Easy required assistance from Maritime Rescue personnel after their vessel lost its rudder following a collision during an interaction with a group of orcas in the waters of Barbate (Cádiz).
According to the information provided by Maritime Rescue to Europa Press on June 9th, the sailboat was located 22 nautical miles southwest of Barbate and made the first distress call at 15:30 on that day. The interaction with the group of orcas caused several damages to the recreational vessel, leaving it without a rudder and with an inoperative engine, in addition to having no watertight integrity.
The causes of several orca attacks in the Strait divide the scientific community.
After the events of last May, in which three sailboats were attacked by a group of orcas in the waters of the Strait, causing considerable damage to the vessels, the scientific community is studying the causes of these attacks. However, there are no clear conclusions.
Apparently, there are 15 orcas that form this group of cetaceans, with the largest of them adopting the name 'Gladis', and the others having similar names like 'Gladis gray', 'Gladis black', or 'Gladis small'.
Initially, it was suggested that the orcas might have perceived these types of boats as a threat, leading them to ram into them. However, this possibility was not considered likely since such incidents were rare.
According to some researchers, the mother orca of the group may have had a negative experience with these boats, which traumatized her, resulting in her instilling aggressive behavior in her offspring.
However, several experts consulted by Andalucía Información disagree with this opinion, stating, "all cetaceans have been suffering for the past 50 years. In the past, the Japanese used to catch 50 kilograms of whales every day. If it were due to bad experiences, they would have started seeking revenge earlier."
Another possibility on the table is that the collisions were accidental. Orcas are marine mammals that need to surface to breathe, and the fact that sailboats have such quiet engines may have inadvertently led to these collisions.
"There are so many options that it could even be that they interacted with the rudder of a boat and found it entertaining, which is why they repeated it more than once," underline the experts.
Further investigations are still needed, but what is clear is that there is currently a division of opinions among researchers regarding the cause of these events.
The latest map from Miteco does not include the encounters with orcas in La Línea, Sotogrande, and Estepona.
The latest map from the Ministry is dated this Wednesday, July 26, and indicates the surroundings of Tarifa and Barbate as the only areas where cetaceans can be found, according to information provided through satellite tracking. The previous document was from July 12.
Map of orca presence by Miteco, as of July 26. Map of orca presence by Miteco, as of July 26. Map of orca presence by Miteco, as of July 26.
However, sailors have updated this information through the website of the Orca Atlántica working group, which places the latest sightings of orcas, also on July 26, a few miles between the beaches of La Línea and Sotogrande.
As a matter of fact, the latest interaction occurred on Wednesday at 14:00 on the east side of the Rock of Gibraltar, with a sailboat named Discovery, which was damaged. Another vessel came to its rescue upon hearing the emergency call on channel 16, which is the second level of request for help.
Map of orca presence by Orca Ibérica, as of July 26. Map of orca presence by Orca Ibérica, as of July 26. Map of orca presence by Orca Ibérica, as of July 26.
In this regard, the company Turmares, which organizes daily maritime excursions from Tarifa, announced on their social media that on Wednesday, they encountered a group of orcas in Gibraltar. "Yesterday we had to go all the way to Gibraltar to see the orcas, but we did it! Our entire crew always strives to the fullest so that you can enjoy the best sightings, and if it's necessary to cross the entire Strait, we do it."
The appearance of a "native" or resident tuna, which lives year-round in the western Mediterranean due to the presence of warm waters with sufficient food, may explain this migration of orcas in recent weeks.
To Estepona
Last week, a sailboat participating in the Copa del Rey de Vela, heading towards Mallorca, collided with an orca three miles southeast of Estepona, suffering damage to one of the two rudders of the boat, Ignacio González Camacho's Kapote tercero. According to the official account of the Copa del Rey de Vela, the vessel was towed to Estepona Marina by Salvamento Marítimo as it lost control of the boat.
In addition to this incident in Estepona, three boats suffered damage to the rudder due to various encounters with groups of orcas in the Sotogrande area. For the moment, it is unknown whether it is the same family threatening the sailors in the waters of Barbate or a new one.
The behavior of these orcas off the coast of Sotogrande, in the municipality of San Roque, is typical: the cetaceans approach the sailboats and bite the rudder until they break the guardines - each of the two ropes or chains that are attached to the tiller and used to maneuver the boat - or the boat's steering guide.
One of the damaged boats was a Tom 28, a vessel with a specific design for regattas.
Until now, the official recommendation from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco) to avoid damage to boats was not to navigate certain areas, marked in red on nautical charts. These warmer water areas were located near Barbate, to the west of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Proyecto ORCA estimates that there are 14 individuals breaking rudders of sailboats in the Strait.
ORCA Project Cádiz, an association whose main purpose is to disseminate and raise awareness about the situation of orcas in the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the Strait, has counted that there are 14 individuals, all females, which in the vicinity of Campo de Gibraltar, break or deform the rudders of sailboats, leaving them without control and needing to be towed to a port for subsequent repairs.
"If this were a defensive response, such behavior would be perpetrated by adults protecting themselves and their offspring from a possible threat. However, this is not the case, as there are only 2 adult females involved, and the other 12 are actively participating juveniles," state the members of this association, which has created a catalog to effectively monitor the population.
First encounter between an orca and a sailboat in the waters of the Bay of Algeciras
This summer, on Sunday, July 30, for the first time, an orca ventured into the waters of the Bay of Algeciras and had a confrontation with a sailboat located between the southern end of the isolated dike of the port of Algeciras and the port of La Línea.
Upon noticing the cetacean approaching, the boat reversed, and the vessel only suffered damage to the paint on its hull. Sailors have discovered that reversing can dissuade orcas. Recently, some sailboats are also throwing firecrackers attached to lead pieces into the water to explode in the sea and scare away the animals.
Throughout July, a group of orcas has moved from the coast of Barbate to the area of Estepona and Marbella, crossing the Strait. However, until last Sunday, no cetaceans had entered the Bay of Algeciras.
The reason for the departure from Atlantic waters may be related to the appearance of a family of "native" or resident tuna that lives year-round in the western Mediterranean - on the eastern side of the Rock of Gibraltar - thanks to the presence of warmer waters with sufficient food.
In any case, the recent interactions between sailboats and orcas off the coasts of La Línea, Sotogrande, and Estepona are not yet reflected in the maps published by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco).
The latest data from Miteco is from July 26, where they indicate the surroundings of Tarifa and Barbate as the only areas where it is possible to find cetaceans, according to information provided through satellite tracking.
One tagged orca
When consulted by Europa Sur, the ministry explains that the tagging done "on the first orca is still transmitting." And they add: "The group of orcas we were monitoring is currently in French waters."
Miteco is collaborating with Circe, an association based in Algeciras dedicated to the conservation and study of cetaceans, for the tagging of a maximum of six orcas with the aim of understanding their habitat use throughout the year. "New tagging will continue to be carried out when the opportunity arises, considering the distribution of the group, as well as the sea conditions, which do not always allow for safe tagging for both professionals and animals," clarifies the Ministry for Ecological Transition in response to this newspaper.
On July 14, Circe announced on their social media that they were launching a new campaign to track the orcas. "We will deploy a series of devices that will allow us to better understand their hunting strategies," they added.
