Atlantic Ocean – Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire is a popular spot for fishermen. This past Tuesday was shaping up to be another normal day in the harbor until a whale appeared.
Fisherman Colin Yager shared a video of a life-threatening situation with news media outlets. The video shows a humpback whale going full Free Willy and jumping onto a fishing boat. The cameraman made his boat do a U-turn to save the capsized passengers. The boat was salvaged, and the whale likely sustained no injuries.
Since then, the various people involved in the situation have been interviewed by various news outlets. Colin Yager revealed to WGME when he realized that something was up:
“There was a whale like half a mile away that we saw, and then it slowly came on over and it was like breaching around us a little bit. And then it just breached right in front of us onto the boat, which I mean, everyone’s seen the video now.”
According to WMUR, here’s how Colin Yager was able to capture the shot:
“I had my fishing rod right here, phone in my hand and just saw it go up, and was just lucky enough to be facing the right direction.”
On Wednesday, WMUR spoke with marine mammal experts to figure out why this happened. In terms of what caused the whale to do its best Jaws impression, they believe that the humpback whales were preying on baitfish and didn’t see the boat until making the leap.
For boaters, here’s what Sara Morris from the University of New Hampshire Shoals Marine Laboratory said should be the key takeaways from this situation to WMUR:
“I think one of the key things is that when whales are sighted to encourage boaters to keep their distance. The whales are moving around underwater and coming up, potentially in an area different from where they went down, and we want to give them as much leeway as we possibly can to avoid a situation like what you see here.”
Image/Video Credits: Colin Yager, WMUR
