Toñi has been navigating the Strait of Gibraltar for nearly 60 years. She is known as ‘the grandmother’: she is the longest-lived orca in a population that barely exceeds 40 individuals worldwide.
Researchers from WeWhale and Iberian Orca Guardians compared her recent photographs with the historical archive and found something that was not there before: ten holes in her dorsal fin and back. The Atlantic Orca Working Group determined that nine of those impacts form a pattern of three rows of three, consistent with the nine lead pellets contained in a 12/70 gauge cartridge, ammunition used to hunt wild boar. The tenth hole would not be part of that pattern.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition opened an investigation following the NGOs’ complaint, and CIRCE, which has studied this population since 1999, joined the monitoring effort. Toñi belongs to a species classified as vulnerable, protected by law, and yet someone got close enough to shoot her. She continues swimming and hunting normally, but at her age any infection can be fatal. No one has yet confirmed who pulled the trigger.