Two persons were hurled into the ocean from their small boat off the New Hampshire shore Tuesday after a whale capsized it, WCVB 5 reported.
The capsizing episode “was caught on video by two brothers on a nearby boat,” the outlet tweeted. (RELATED: Video Shows Cruise Ship Sail Into Port With 44-Foot-Whale Stuck To Bow)
Two people were thrown into the ocean after a whale landed on their fishing boat off the New Hampshire coast on Tuesday morning, and the entire incident was caught on video by two brothers on a nearby boat https://t.co/tZ4tildSTx pic.twitter.com/WzPemowDTZ
— WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) July 23, 2024
The video shows a whale breaching the surface and its maw hitting a white boat with two persons visibly inside. One person inside the boat launches into the water while the other managed to hug the side of the vessel as it turned on its side. The video also shows one of the brothers staring at the capsized boat as he fished and then taking the wheel of his own boat.
Wyatt Yager, 19, and Colin Yager, 16, were the two brothers from Maine who captured the incident on video, WCVB 5 reported. Colin was reportedly the one recording while Wyatt can be seen by the boat’s wheel in the video.
“I saw it go up so I was just lucky enough to be facing the right direction,” Colin told the outlet.
“I saw it come up and I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s going to hit the boat,’ and then it kind of started to flip,” Wyatt reportedly said.
One of the capsized boat’s occupants leapt into the water while the other was knocked overboard, the outlet reported. The Yager brothers told the outlet they pulled the two unfortunate boaters out of the water and neither had any apparent significant injuries.
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announced that their agency received a mayday call about a whale capsizing a 23-foot boat and verified that the fishermen were “ejected from their vessel” and recovered by other boaters with no reported injuries.
The responding USCG boat crew “reported that the whale appeared not to be injured.” A salvage operation of the vessel was successful.
“We are grateful to the good samaritans for taking such quick action to rescue these two individuals. Bravo Zulu!” the USCG tweeted, adding that boaters should “practice safe seamanship” and alert the service to any whales spotted.
