Toñi is around 60 years old and is known among researchers as the "grandmother" of the orca population that moves between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cádiz. This week she has appeared with as many as a dozen marks on her dorsal fin and back which, according to the organisations that monitor her, were not there in the photographs taken a few weeks earlier.

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It was the conservation group WeWhale that raised the alarm after comparing the animal’s current condition with its previous photographic record. Janek Andre, founder of WeWhale and Iberian Orca Guardians, said that the wounds now visible on the fin and back are, in his view, consistent with the impact of a shotgun blast.

The Atlantic Orca Working Group has gone further in its technical assessment. According to this collective, the injuries could correspond to lead pellets of around 9 millimetres, similar to those used in buckshot cartridges for wild boar, and it notes that this type of ammunition usually spreads nine projectiles in three rows of three, a pattern they consider to match the arrangement of the marks found on the animal.

Investigation under way

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge learned of the case on the afternoon of 11 August, through information submitted by WeWhale (source in Spanish), an organisation authorised to operate in the area. The following day, the Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification opened preliminary proceedings to clarify the facts and, if appropriate, to launch a sanctions procedure against those responsible.

The vice-president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, confirmed via the social network Bluesky that the orca showed marks consistent with pellet shots and stressed that this is a vulnerable species, so any harm caused to it constitutes a serious offence.

CIRCE, the organisation that has been carrying out scientific monitoring of Iberian orcas since 1999 and holds a photographic archive of Toñi spanning more than two decades, has also joined this work.

The organisation has pointed out that, before determining the origin of the injuries, it is necessary to examine the available images in detail, compare them with the historical series and carry out fresh direct monitoring of the animal and its group.

For the time being, none of the authorities involved has officially confirmed that the wounds were caused by a shot, although this remains the main working hypothesis.

What the law says and how to act around an orca

The orca population of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cádiz is listed as vulnerable in the Spanish Catalogue of Endangered Species. Article 57 of Law 42/2007 on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity prohibits any action aimed at killing, capturing, pursuing or harassing the specimens included in that catalogue.

The specific rules on cetacean protection add further restrictions: no vessel may approach closer than 500 metres, make contact with the animals, swim with them, feed them, obstruct their path, split up groups or emit loud sounds to attract or scare them.

In the critical area of the Ensenada de Barbate, Conil and the Banco Majuán, orca watching is also banned between 1 March and 31 August. Anyone who breaches these measures faces fines of up to two million euros and criminal liability, according to MITECO itself.

Since 2020 there has been an increase in interactions between these orcas and vessels sailing through the Strait and the Gulf of Cádiz. For this reason, the Ministry of Transport and MITECO recommend avoiding navigation in the area between April and August and, if there is an encounter with the animal, heading for the coast, avoiding any manoeuvre that could harm it, keeping people away from the gunwale and alerting the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.

The case of Toñi has once again turned the spotlight on this protected population. The organisations working in the area insist that these animals need protection, not reprisals.