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Salon
Salon
Science
Nicole Karlis

RARE PHOTOS: Are the orca attacks spreading - The Real Truth

The killer whale on boat "violence" doesn't seem to be going away. Last week, an orca (Orcinus orca) reportedly launched itself into a yacht off the coast of the North Sea. The event, which wasn't independently verified by Salon, is the first time a killer whale incident has been known to happen off the coast of Scotland, and nearly 2,000 miles from where the behavior has been reported hundreds of times off the coast of Spain and Portugal.

Dr. Wim Rutten, a retired Dutch scientist, told the Guardian he was fishing when an orca suddenly appeared and started ramming itself into his boat. According to the report, the killer whale hit the boat multiple times. "What I felt [was] most frightening was the very loud breathing of the animal," Rutten told the Guardian. "Then he disappeared ... but came back at fast speed, twice or thrice ... and circled a bit."

It raises a series of intriguing questions: Are orca attacks spreading? Will they become more common? And why are they doing this anyway?

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