Watch: Whale capsizes boat with two sailors on board
A humpback whale capsized a small fishing boat with two sailors on board off the coast of New Hampshire in the US.
Video footage captured the moment the whale breached the waters and smashed its snout on the back of the vessel.
Greg Paquette and Ryland Kenney were tossed into the waters off the coast of the city of Portsmouth on Tuesday. They escaped without being injured.
They thanked two brothers, Wyatt Yager, 19, and Colin Yager, 16, of Eliot, Maine, who were fishing nearby, for rescuing them just after 7am local time between Rye Harbor and the mouth of the Piscataqua River.
The teenagers filmed the moment the whale hit the boat, which has gone viral on social media. One can be heard declaring, “oh my God,”, as the other grabs the wheel to go to help the two fishermen.
“I was just in shock. Everyone else had the same reaction and tried to get over to those people,” Wyatt said.
“We’re glad they took such quick action,” Mr Paquette told the Portsmouth Herald. “They didn’t even think about it. We’re really grateful to both of them.”
He said he was wearing an inflatable life jacket that activated when he was thrown into the water. Before he hit the water, he saw the whale’s head hit the engine of the boat.
“Then I saw the whole stern become inundated with water and I thought, ‘Oh no. We’re going down. We’re going to sink now’,” he said.
The two men swam clear and were rescued by the brothers in under two minutes. The footage shows the stricken boat floating on its side before flipping over. A different clip shows it being towed away by another vessel.
“It’s been an emotional day,” Mr Paquette said.
Sara Morris, director of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, said the whale appeared to be “lunge feeding”, a way of chasing fish, when it hit the boat. In the video footage, small fish can be seen escaping from the whale’s mouth as it rises out of the water.
“I think one of the key things is that when whales are sighted to encourage boaters to keep their distance,” Ms Morris told local radio. “The whales are moving around underwater and coming up, potentially in an area different from where they went down.”
The incident came days after a humpback, believed to be about two years old, was seen in the Piscataqua River.
“We’re hoping it leaves the area soon,” Dianna Schulte of the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation told news outlet WGME.
“There has been a lot of menhaden, which is a type of small bait fish, in the river recently. So likely, it was coming into the river just looking for some food,” she added.
Humpbacks can weigh up to 40 tons and grow up to 56ft. They are generally docile and usually only approach boats when they are curious.
