Two fishermen were rescued after a humpback whale suddenly surfaced and capsized their boat off the coast of New Hampshire in the United States. The alarming situation was captured on video.
Humpback Whale Crashes Into a Ship
The US Coast Guard said they received a distress call reporting that a 26-foot center console boat had capsized due to a whale emergency near Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, New Hampshire.
The agency said an urgent marine information broadcast was issued and Portsmouth Harbor Coast Guard Station was ordered to launch.
A humpback whale breached the water and landed on a recreational boat near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, capsizing the vessel and ejecting two passengers, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The two boaters were rescued without injury. https://t.co/89s81a9FNL pic.twitter.com/WCOD4fZ3Ec
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 24, 2024
Both boaters were rescued from the water by a person who was in the area confirming that no injuries were reported. The whale was also not injured by the incident and the boat was recovered.
In the social media trend video, you can see the boaters falling into the water after the whale collided with their boat.
The After-Rescue
The video of the incident was recorded by Colin Yager, who said he and his brother Wyatt, who were fishing nearby, were the ones who rescued the boaters. The brothers described seeing the whale crash into the other fishing boat.
Massive humpback whale jumps out of water & crashes into a boat, throws both fishermen into the Atlantic
Teenage brothers watched this surreal yet scary moment. They captured the breaching whale on video & helped rescue the fishermen in time! pic.twitter.com/0S2XtYbuNw
— Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) July 24, 2024
“I saw it come up, and I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s going to hit the boat,’ and then it kind of started to flip,” said Colin about the humpback whale crash.
One of the fishermen named Gregg Paquette also gave his testimony, saying that “We didn’t see him for a couple of minutes, and then the next thing we knew, he popped up and landed right on the transom of the boat.”
