Tourists were ‘sitting ducks’ as orcas chased their yacht for an hour off Morocco

Orcas chased a yacht during bad weather off the coast of Morocco, leading to fears among British tourists on board that they would have to abandon the boat.

The killer whales began bumping the 20-metre boat during a pursuit that lasted for an hour, about 11km from the port of Tangier in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Experienced sailors Janet Morris and Stephen Bidwell, from Cambridge, east England, said they thought of using the life raft to escape.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the orcas,” Ms Morris said. “It’s extremely rare. We were sitting ducks.

“We were amazingly calm but underneath we were thinking, ‘oh my god’. It wasn’t until afterwards that we talked about being very scared.”

Mr Bidwell and Ms Morris said that at one point during the incident the yacht’s steering failed, but they were able to make it back to port.

Crew on the boat said the orcas were probably chasing parts of the boat’s rudder.

The couple had been napping, but were woken by banging on the hull and the crew shouting.

“The captain was very calm and orderly, which got everyone through,” Ms Morris said.

Mr Bidwell said: “We were aware that if any of us got anxious, it would be infectious.

“Orcas enjoy the thrill of the chase, so ideally we’d have kept still. But that wasn’t possible because of the winds.”

There have been more than 100 incidents involving orcas in the Strait since 2020.

This month, two orcas were seen off the UAE coast. The whales circled a dugong off Abu Dhabi before swimming north to Jebel Ali in Dubai.

They continued their journey to Umm Al Quwain, where scientists lost track of them.