Wrangell Sentinel -

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - A pod of killer whales repeatedly rammed a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar last month, damaging it enough to require Spanish rescuers to come to the aid of its four crew members.

It was the latest episode in a perplexing trend in the behavior of orcas populating the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula that has left researchers searching for a cause.

Spain’s Maritime Rescue service said that killer whales repeatedly ran into the Mustique, a 65-foot vessel sailing under a U.K. flag, late on May 24, rendering its rudder inoperative and cracking its hull. Spanish...