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Beware of the pissed off whale!
- Thread starter Melensdad
- Start date
Found an article on this.
Whale slams boat, topples 2 boaters off Rye coast: 'I was in shock'
Whale slams boat, sending two people into water off Odiorne Point in Rye. Brothers Wyatt Yager, 19, and Colin Yager, 16, were the rescuers.
www.seacoastonline.com
Whale slams boat, topples 2 boaters off Rye coast: 'I was in shock'
RYE — Two boaters were rescued by two teenagers Tuesday morning after a whale breached off Odiorne Point State Park, striking the boat, capsizing it and sending the passengers overboard, according to the Coast Guard.
Brothers Wyatt Yager, 19, and Colin Yager, 16, were fishing for menhaden, commonly called "pogies," just after 7 a.m. The Eliot, Maine residents were among roughly 10 boaters out between Rye Harbor and the mouth of the Piscataqua River when they spotted the whale. About an hour later, it slammed the boat and sent two men into the water.
The incident comes days after a humpback whale was spotted in the Piscataqua River, and weeks following its previous appearances in extremely shallow waters in Pepperrell Cove in Kittery, Maine. It wasn't immediately known if it was the same whale.
19-year-old boater shares story of whale breach and rescue
Wyatt Yager wasn't initially worried about the whale, as all the boats stayed along the edge of the large school of fish to allow the whale to feed, he said. But the whale moved close to one boat, breached and knocked it over.
Wyatt Yager estimated he and his brother, who caught the incident on video, were about 20 meters away. Colin Yager's video was widely circulated on social media Tuesday.
"I was just in shock. Everyone else had the same reaction and tried to get over to those people," he said. "It was like, 'Oh shoot,' and then, 'We’ve got to go help these people.' All the boats dropped what they were doing to go over to help them."
Wyatt Yager, a University of Maine student, and his brother, Colin, a student at Marshwood High School, turned their boat around to go rescue the capsized boaters. The two men were in the water swimming safely, appearing uninjured, Wyatt said, and were in the water very briefly.
The men stayed in the Yagers' boat for about 15 minutes, then the brothers dropped them off at a nearby friend's vessel before the Coast Guard arrived, according to Wyatt Yager.
The brothers often see whales when they fish for tuna about 10-15 miles offshore, according to Wyatt Yager. But Tuesday's incident was by far the closest they've ever seen a whale to shore.
"If we didn’t get to them, somebody else would have gotten to them 10 seconds later," he said. "Everybody was trying to help."
Coast Guard: No injuries to boaters or whale
Coast Guard spokesperson Diolanda Caballero said the people ejected into the ocean were not injured and were not wearing life jackets. She confirmed they were swiftly rescued by nearby boaters.
The passengers were transported to Great Bay Marina in Newington after the whale breach, Caballero said.
The vessel struck by the whale was a 23-foot center console boat, Caballero said.
The Coast Guard received two mayday calls regarding the capsizing after the breach.
This story will be updated.