Desperate mayday call as whale capsizes vessel hurling boaters into ocean
A humpback whale breached and slammed into a fishing boat, flipping it and throwing two boaters into the ocean and prompting a desperate mayday call.
The huge juvenile whale emerged from the ocean of the New Hampshire coast and its head landed at one end of the vessel, tipping it to the side and ultimately flipping it upside down.
Both fisherman aboard the small boat could be seen tumbling down into the water.
‘Oh my god,’ someone recording the video could be heard saying.
Radio calls immediately after the dramatic incident on Tuesday morning near Odiorne Point State Park revealed the panic of other boaters who watched it unfold before their eyes.
‘Mayday, mayday, flipped vessel, behind the tanker in front of Odeon, about three quarters of a mile. Two passengers safe on another vessel, boat sinking,’ an unknown person could be heard telling the US Coast Guard.
‘There were two people on board, they’re currently on another vessel, they’re still out here with us, everybody is safe. Pulled out onto the adjoining vessel.
‘Their boat was hit by the whale, capsized, they were thrown under the water. Boat is currently upside down sinking.’
A Coast Guard official could be heard repeating some of the details, including that it happened around 7.45am, and advising: ‘All vessels in the area are requested to keep a sharp lookout. Assist if possible.’
Both fishermen who were tossed from the vessel – Greg Paquette and Ryland Kenney – were not wearing life jackets, and managed to escape the situation unscathed.
The pair said they had spotted the giant marine animal earlier and were trying to stay away from it as they floated at the edge of a big school of fish.
‘When I turned, the whale’s head was already landing on the engine,’ Paquette told WMUR. ‘So when I saw that, then all of a sudden, I look down, the boat is pitching up, the transom is going down into the water.’
Kenney said ‘everything seemed like in slow motion’.
‘Everyone was like, “Oh, it was eight seconds. How’d you move so fast?” But it was almost slow motion, like a movie,’ he told the TV station.
Maine brothers Colin and Wyatt Yager also saw the whale and the former had his phone in his hand and recorded the incident.
Wyatt said: ‘I saw it come up, and I was just like, “Oh no, it’s going to hit the boat!” and then it started to flip.’
Coast Guard officials said the whale did not appear to be injured.
The capsized vessel was able to be salvaged.
It happened more than a year-and-a-half after a mako shark jumped out of the water off the coast of Maine and onto a vessel with a group of fishermen.
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