RYE, NH (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says two fishermen are safe after a whale struck a boat off the coast of New Hampshire.
The incident happened Tuesday near Odiorn Point State Park in Rye. The two men thrown overboard said they had seen the whale earlier and were trying to keep their distance.
“He went down, he disappeared for a few minutes, and then the next thing we knew, he appeared right on our transom,” said fisherman Ryland Kenny. told WMUR-TV.
The Coast Guard told X that they had received a Mayday call that a 23-foot (7-meter) center console boat had capsized due to a broken whale.
“Occupants were evacuated from the vessel due to capsizing,” the Coast Guard said, as an emergency marine information broadcast was issued and Coast Guard Station Portsmouth was alerted.
“A good Samaritan rescued them both from the water. There were no injuries,” the Coast Guard posted.
The rescuers were two young brothers.
“I saw it coming up and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s going to hit the boat,'” Wyatt Yager told the station. “It started flipping.” His brother, Colin Yager, caught what happened on his phone.
The boat crew from Station Portsmouth reported that the whale was unharmed. The incident was reported to the Coastal Research Center’s Marine Animal Hotline and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The ship has also been recovered.
It’s unlikely the whale was aware of the boat, said Sarah Morris of the University of New Hampshire Shoals Marine Laboratory.
“If you look very carefully at the video, you can see the whale has its mouth open,” he told the station. “It looks like lunch food and actually trying to catch fish.”
