Five people were rescued after a pod of critically endangered Iberian orcas rammed into a sailboat several times, causing it to sink off Portugal’s Costa do Caparica, near the nation’s capital, Lisbon, on Sept. 13. None of the people on board suffered any injuries, according to the Portuguese maritime authority. The boat, owned by yacht rental company Nautic Squad, sank bow-first but was later transported to a nearby port. The same day in Cascais Bay, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast, tourists aboard a second sailboat also reported orcas knocking against the side of their vessel. This year, more than 80 such orca interactions, most of them involving sailboats, have been reported along the coast of Spain and Portugal. The Iberian orcas form a subpopulation of killer whales (Orcinus orca) found in the Strait of Gibraltar, numbering roughly 37 individuals. They’ve been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2019. The first orca-boat interaction was reported in May 2020, and there have since been more than 750 encounters where orcas push or ram into boats. Prior to the latest incident, orcas caused at least six boats to sink. Vessels can avoid orcas by sticking close to shore near their hunting zones. The subpopulation’s numbers plummeted after the collapse of its preferred prey, the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), due to overfishing. Today, the tuna population has recovered, and some scientists think the abundance of food has given orcas more time to play. Boat ramming joins a roster…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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