The information comes from the Associated Press.
An unforgettable horror experience
On July 23, two fishermen drove a small fishing boat to fish off the coast of Ory Point State Park in Ley, New Hampshire. This area is open at any time, so as long as the weather is good, there are always a lot of people here to play or fish.
There are also many people today, in addition to the good weather, and because there is a humpback whale roaming nearby, people want to come and see it. However, the two fishermen were not surprised by this, although they saw whales, they kept trying to keep their distance, and just wanted to catch their own fish in peace.
However, the unexpected happened. One of the fishermen, Ry·land Kenney, told reporters after the incident: "It (the whale) sank into the water, disappeared for a few minutes, and then, the next thing we learned, it suddenly appeared on the stern of our boat." ”
Shortly after diving underwater, the humpback whale suddenly jumped out of the water and overwhelmed the stern of the fishing boat, causing the whole ship to tilt and then capsize. The two crew members of the ship then fell into the sea.
Not far away, a pair of young people, they are brothers, witnessed the whole process. Colin · Yager filmed everything that happened with his mobile phone, and his brother Wyatt · Yager was in the camera. In a follow-up interview, the two said: "I saw it float up, and I was like, 'Oh, it's going to hit the boat.'"
The two quickly drove the boat to the overboard crew, pulled them onto the boat, and then appealed to the United States Coast Guard for help.
What's the situation?
The Coast Guard received a distress signal that a 7-meter boat had been hit by a whale and capsized and that people on board had been thrown overboard. They then issued an emergency maritime information broadcast and alerted the Portsmouth Harbour Coast Guard station.
The two crew members were then taken to the hospital for examination by the Coast Guard, who arrived on the road, but fortunately they were not injured. Two crew members said the whale did not appear to be injured. The incident was reported to the Coastal Research Center Marine Animal Hotline and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of United States, and the boat has been fished out, with no major damage to the ship, except for the loss of many items on board.
Sara · Morris of the University of New Hampshire's Shoal Marine Laboratory said the whale may not have known the boat was there, and she thought it was an accident. After carefully watching the video several times, she found that the whale opened its mouth when it jumped out of the water, indicating that it should have pounced to feed at this time, and was actually trying to catch the fish, but she didn't pay attention to the position of the boat, which led to the accident.
The whale has not been spotted so far, and it is uncertain if it was injured.
Similar events
Encounters like this are not the first time they have happened, the most recent being on September 10, 2022, when five people died.
According to reports, a large observation group of female bird watchers over the age of 50 chartered a small boat to New Zealand for a birdwatching trip at sea, when the boat collided with a whale, killing five of them, and six other passengers, including the captain, survived and were rescued.
The bodies of the five women were found inside the ship, they were not lifted overboard, trapped in the cabin and eventually suffocated.
Police said they were still investigating the cause of the collision, and the surviving victim said that a whale suddenly floated up from below and collided with the boat, which was then overturned.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Kaikoura police officer Matt · Boyce called the incident an "unprecedented event" and a tragedy.