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@FeralRobots I think the point when it really hit home for me was reading about the family involved in one of the earlier singings. They were over a hundred miles off shore, in the Bay of Biscay, in their life raft, begging people on the radio not to rescue them in case they brought the orcas back.

One thing people are doing is sticking to shallow water, near the coast. If they go for you there, without a rudder you will likely be driven onto the rocks and drowned. Someone is going to die, sooner or later.

I place the blame for this squarely on the Spanish maritime authorities. They have an attitude of reckless indifference. Most of the attacks happen in their waters, and their response has been to tell people that they could be prosecuted for defending themselves.

This has led to people exchanging information in invite-only WhatsApp groups and the like. Where to get what are effectively depth charges, how to use them, etc. Occasionally someone pops up and is all "don't hurt the murederfish! It's illegal under Spanish law!"

There is then the usual explanation that the safety of life at sea regulations emphasise first and foremost the need to save human life, and that people in international waters, or the territorial waters of Morocco, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom (attacks have happened in all these places) don't give a flying fuck what Spanish law says.

This could and should have been nipped in the bud. A targeted cull of 2-3 individuals in 2019 would have stopped it. Now there is a very high chance that this will result in the extinction of the Iberian Orca.