||| FROM THE OLIVE PRESS |||
Ship captains in the Strait of Gibraltar are kitting their vessels out with sharpened rudders in order to harm killer whales that may approach their boats.
The extreme measure is being taken after a string of interactions with the critically endangered Iberian orca in recent years that have seen some boats damaged and even sunk.
Some members of the pod have taken up the habit of targeting a boat’s rudder in order to disable it, the ones who are doing so being designated ‘Gladys’.
But just this weekend, a French boat in dry-dock in Barbate marina was filmed by conservation group Sea Shepherd with blades attached to the rudder ‘to injure orcas that approach.’
Despite informing the local maritime authorities, the boat is back on the seas.
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