Humpback Whale Accidentally Capsizes Boat in New Hampshire, Tossing Two Fishermen Overboard
A massive humpback whale was seen landing squarely on a small boat, tossing two fishermen into the cold New Hampshire waters in a terrifying video. The incident took place on Tuesday, July 23. The pair of fishermen was thrown into the chilly sea off the US coast.
The video shows the 30-foot-long juvenile emerge from the surface beyond the stern of the boat, which was anchored a half-mile off the coast of Portsmouth. The beast’s head smashed onto the 23-foot vessel, flipping it over. The fishermen, who were not wearing life jackets, were thrown into the water.
The US Coast Guard confirmed that the men were rescued by a nearby fishing boat, according to the New York Post. Fortunately, no one was injured. Experts emphasized that the incident had nothing to do with the whale’s temperament.
“It was an accident,” Dianna Schulte, co-founder and director of research for the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, said. Schulte, a Portsmouth-based marine researcher, explained that the huge whale must have been feeding when it appeared. “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 said. “The boat was in the wrong place.”
Schulte mentioned that the fishermen “should have known better than to be fishing with a large whale in the area, because [an accident] can happen.”
Schulte also dismissed the idea that a whale can be “pissed off” or act with malice. “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,” said Schultz.
“I’ve been watching whales and researching whales for 30 years, and I’ve never seen a humpback whale purposely hit a boat,” Schultz said, adding that fishermen must give the animal as much as 100 yards of space.
