“We were a little bit speechless. You just look at each other and think: what the hell is going on? What the hell is going on with humanity?” Janek Andre, founder of WeWhale and the Iberian Orca Guardians Foundation, said after spotting an orca with shotgun wounds.
Andre and his team found Toñi, the oldest known Iberian orca, with around 10 shotgun wounds in her dorsal fin last week. She was last spotted a week ago on Wednesday (August 12). “We don’t know where she is at the moment. We don’t know her condition at the moment,” Andre said.
The injuries on Toñi, a female orca of around 60 years old, could be deadly if her wounds get infected, he explained. “We are kind of sure that still there are some bullets in the dorsal fin, which could lead, of course, to sepsis later, a blood infection.”
Iberian orcas are protected under Spanish law. Spanish authorities have opened an investigation. The Spanish Environment Ministry says the wounds are compatible with shotgun pellets.
The Animal Reader spoke with Janek Andre, founder of WeWhale and the Iberian Orca Guardians Foundation, about what happened to Toñi and why the loss of even one animal could have serious consequences for this critically endangered population.
Watch the interview with Janek Andre here
Fewer than 30 remain
WeWhale’s latest 2026 census indicates that fewer than 30 Iberian orcas remain, Andre told The Animal Reader. The figure has not yet been officially published and is expected to become official early next year.
“From our last year’s statement they’re less than 40, but now actually we can already confirm that they are less than 30, according to our census that we have been doing this year.”
Iberian orcas live mainly around the Strait of Gibraltar and along the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal.
“She is carrying a lot of knowledge in this whole pod and also showing the younger females a lot of things. So she’s actually passing knowledge to other generations,” Andre said about Toñi.
“She adopted a son called Pingu because Pingu lost his mother.” Andre believes her loss could therefore affect Pingu too: “If Toñi would pass away, then it would be very difficult for Pingu, the adoptive son, to survive as well.”
Orcas and boats
Iberian orcas have received worldwide attention since 2020 because some of them have started interacting with sailing boats. The interactions have created growing tension between people at sea and the small orca population.
“They are not attacks. Attack implies always something aggressive, if you intentionally try to harm somebody or something. The orcas don’t have any bad intention when they come to the boat. The only thing they are wanting at the moment is they’re curious,” Andre said.
He added that whatever people think about the boat interactions, violence against the animals cannot be accepted.
“We know about people throwing firecrackers at them, throwing stones at them, putting oil into the water. It can never be a response that we shoot at these animals or throw firecrackers at these animals or try to harm them. This is a critically endangered population. We have less than 30 individuals.”
Andre said the shooting has affected him personally. After spending so much time following Toñi and the other Iberian orcas, they are no longer simply animals he studies.
“She’s part of our family there. We are going out so many days and we see her so many times,” he said. For now, his team will keep returning to the water, hoping to find her again. “Hopefully she will survive.”
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