Whales At Play - New Hampshire

[BruceK]

Video captures boaters being thrown into water as whale flips vessel

A video taken by 16-year-old Colin Yager shows the whale breaching, then flopping onto the rear of the boat as two men jump.

www.abc.net.au

Nothing malicious, they just surfaced somewhere else than where they dived but forgot to check the surface above was clear. Fortunately no one injured but the boat came second by a long way.

 

[CaptTom]

This whale (they think it's just one) has taken to coming into the harbor and even up the river. This is something new in the lifetimes of everyone around here. There have also been a lot of bait balls of pogies (menhaden) in the area, something else we haven't seen in a long time, if ever.

The whales are after the pogies. The local day fishermen are after the stripers underneath, which are corralling them into the bait balls. Every photo I've seen of the whale in the river shows one or more of these small fishing boats dangerously close to it. This was not unexpected, and we're very fortunate there were no injuries.

 

[SteveK]

@CaptTom
If the fishermen and the whale are after the same target then yes this accident will be expected. What kind of whale is that, black like orca but tiny dorsel.

 

[CaptTom]

Humpback. Much bigger than an Orca. Pretty common in this area, but rare for them to be seen this close to shore. They've been observed lunge feeding right around these boats, and around a mooring field in a nearby cove. If the bait balls don't move on, this won't be the last incident.

 

[Docktopus]

When you see a pod of whales what do you do? We have only come across a pod once and stayed 200 yards away, as best we could. A couple times, one surfaced a bit closer than that and we moved away. I was also running the engines only at idle and only when necessary just in case one came up under us. I don’t know if there are official rules or if they change by location.

 

[BruceK]

Interesting, seems the whale is a regular. Australia has regulations on approaching a whale,and whale and calf, but tough to stop them approaching you.

 

[Benthic2]

I believe we are supposed to stay 100 yards away from them. The fact that there was a cluster of boats and cameras rolling when this happened means they all knew the whale was there. As far as I'm concerned the guy who lost his boat got what he deserved.

 

[CaptTom]

I believe we are supposed to stay 100 yards away from them. The fact that there was a cluster of boats and cameras rolling when this happened means they all knew the whale was there. As far as I'm concerned the guy who lost his boat got what he deserved.

There's some truth to this. It's human nature to want to go see whales feeding up close, and with a fleet of small boats full of inexperienced operators, it's sort of inevitable that something like this will happen.

But I vaguely know the owner of this boat, and some of the other people who were around that day, so let me try to give the other side of the story.

The two kids filming, who recovered the two guys from the water, really were just fishing. They were after striped bass, who are after the pogies in the bait ball. Based on what they told the media, they didn't even know the whale was that close until it breached, and they were lucky to catch it on video. Man, those young guys are quick on the draw with their phones! Now if we could only teach them to hold the phone in "landscape" mode when filming, so it looks better on the news.

As for the two in the capsized boat, the video shows pretty clearly that they were fishing off the bow and/or along the port side, opposite where the whale came from. I would have felt differently if they were facing the whale and pointing or something.

Were they both too close? Probably. Along with a couple dozen other boats. Maybe the publicity will make some people think more about just how close they really want to be. Unfortunately it will probably attract others who see all those boats crowding the whales and want to join in.

 

[psneeld]

Been in and seen situations like this many, many times. All those boats could have easily been 100 yards from the first whale sighting. By the time the fisherman follow a school of bait, any marine mammal can dive and resurface in the midst of a fleet (also looking for the school of bait). Flipping over a boat fishing for stripers has happen before, a few years back I believe to 2 guys off the N. Jersey coast.

As to camera footage, lots of people have their camera and phones at the ready, some even have mounted GoPros rolling when the fishing action heats up or there is something interesting nearby like whales feeding.

 

[BruceK]

Once we share the marine environment with sea creatures, regulations or not, interactions are inevitable. Doctors here are working on reattaching a surfer`s leg after it was bitten off by a great white. A miraculous save was performed by a man on the beach using his dog`s lead as a tourniquet. Amazingly, the severed leg washed ashore during the beach medical attendance and was packaged and iced. No word if the newly off lead dog found it.