An incredible video shows fishermen being thrown into the sea by a breaching humpback whale that toppled their boat.
The startling encounter unfolded off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when a humpback whale collided with a fishing boat, sending two fishermen into the icy waters.
The incident, captured on a dramatic video, shows the massive marine mammal breaching the surface just beyond the stern of the 23-foot vessel.
With no time to react, the whale’s head came crashing down on the boat, causing it to capsize and flinging the fishermen into the sea. Neither of the men were wearing life jackets.
The footage, filmed by Colin Yanger from a nearby boat, captures the moment the two people were thrown into the sea as their boat was turned upside down.
Yanger and his fellow boat occupants quickly pulled the individuals to safety.
“There is a p*ssed off whale patrolling the waters of Portsmouth NH today. Head on swivel if you’re out there,” former NHL player Ryan Whitney posted on X, alongside the viral video.
Fortunately, nearby fishing boats quickly responded, and the US Coast Guard confirmed that all parties, including the whale, were unharmed, per BBC News.
Experts have clarified that the collision was an unfortunate coincidence rather than an act of aggression.
“It was an accident,” Dianna Schulte, co-founder and director of research for the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation told the New York Post.
Schulte explained that the 30-foot juvenile humpback was feeding when it inadvertently breached near the boat.
“The whales will come up through schools of fish with their mouth wide open and close their mouth, either right before they break the surface or even after they break the surface,” Schulte noted. “The boat was in the wrong place.”
The young humpback has become a local sensation for venturing into the Piscataqua River, an unusual behavior for its species, which typically stays about 15 miles offshore.
Schulte suggested that a population boom in Atlantic menhaden, a preferred prey for whales, could be drawing the juvenile closer to shore as it hones its hunting skills.
Given the whale's recent activity, Schulte emphasized that boaters should have been aware of the potential danger.
"The boaters that are in the video, they should have known better to not be fishing with a large whale in the area, because [an accident] can happen," she said.
Schulte dismissed the notion that the whale acted out of anger or malice, akin to orcas attacking sailboats in Europe.
"The whales, when they’re feeding on the fish schools, when they’re that dense, they just can’t see through the fish school, so they don’t know what’s above them, especially on a cloudy day like today. So the whale had no idea that the boat was even there,” she explained.
"I’ve been watching whales and researching whales for 30 years, and I’ve never seen a humpback whale purposely hit a boat."
.jpg_R5cVBO?tr=h-40)
.jpg_R5cVBO?tr=h-184)
