Sailors are looking for unique ways to ward off orca attacks – and say blasting thrash metal could be a "game changer"

For years, killer whales have been attacking and sometimes capsizing boats in the waters off Spain and Portugal. Now, sailors are working together to find a way to deter the orcas, and may have found a "game changer" solution – blasting thrash metal music. 

GTOA, a group that researches killer whales in this region, including the Strait of Gibraltar where orcas sank a yacht in a 45-minute attack last month, has recorded hundreds of interactions between the species and boats in recent years. The number of interactions – when the whales fix their attention on a boat and either approach, observe or touch it – has increased over the past three years, the group found. 

There were 52 interactions meeting over a five-month period in the region in 2020, the group found. Two years later, in 2022, there were 207 recorded interactions. There have been several documented instances reported this year.