Incredible moment huge whale body slams boat
The incredible moment a humpback whale launched out of the water and slammed itself onto an unsuspecting boat has been caught on camera.
The incident, which was filmed off the coast of New Hampshire in the US, showed the whale leap from the water and onto the back of a small boat.
Two fishermen were seen scrambling off the boat before it flipped onto its side and capsizes.
There were reportedly no injuries, but the US Coast sent out an alert to nearby mariners to assist the two men if possible, according to TMZ.
A nearby boat helped the two men and brought the capsized boat back to safety.
The video has gone viral, with former NHL player Ryan Whitney reacting to the video on X: “There is a pissed off whale patrolling the waters of Portsmouth NH today. Head on swivel if you’re out there.”
Experts have also spoken out on the incident, saying that it was just a coincidence, that had nothing to do with the humpback's temperament.
“It was an accident,” Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation co-founder and director of research Dianna Schulte told The New York Post.
According to the researcher, the humpback whale was feeding when it came up and hit the boat.
“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,” she said.
“The boat was in the wrong place.”
A population boom in Atlantic menhaden, where whales, dolphins and sharks can usually be found, could be the reason why the mammal is coming closer to the coast, according to Schulte.
She said that it could be using the shallow waters to its advantage as it builds its hunting skills.
“The boaters that are in the video, they should have known better to not be fishing with a large whale in the area, because (an accident) can happen,” she said.
“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,” she added.
“I’ve been watching whales and researching whales for 30 years, and I’ve never seen a humpback whale purposely hit a boat.”
She warned that boaters and fishermen should give the mammal as much as 100 yards of space, especially during mealtime.
Images: Instagram