A 20-foot Minke whale died after colliding with a motor boat at the Jersey Shore, officials said. The force of the collision sent a boat passenger into the water.
A boater in Barnegat Bay in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, reported Saturday afternoon that a boat had struck a whale in the bay, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, or MMSC, said on Facebook. Sea Tow, which was called in when the whale was spotted in the bay, reported to MMSC that the whale was dead.
The collision caused the boat to almost capsize and a passenger to fall overboard, MMSC said. There was no information on the person’s condition but they did not appear to be injured.
About an hour before the crash, the NJ State Police Marine Unit notified MMSC that there was a whale in the bay.
Officials attempted to observe the whale, which, after the hit, was resting in shallow water on a sandbar, but could not get closer than 30 yards due to the tides, MMSC said.
Witness video from the scene that was verified by NBC News shows a whale swimming under a motor boat before it tips the vessel onto its side. A person can be seen falling out of the boat.
Other videos posted by the witness show a whale swimming around the shallow waters and violently thrashing its tail.
Charlie Nunn, the boat’s captain, told NBC Philadelphia that this was a freak accident and was not caused by the boaters antagonizing the whale. He said he believes they were in the area before the whale swam through.
He said the whale was likely anxious and in fight-or-flight mode, causing the forceful crash.
“They’re not supposed to be in three feet of water,” Nunn told NBC Philadelphia. “They keep bumping into something, it’s probably fight-or-flight for the poor thing.”
The whale will be towed to a nearby state park on Monday and will undergo a necropsy, which could take several hours to complete, MMSC said.
The nonprofit warned boaters to take caution in the area north of Double Creek Channel in Barnegat Bay and to stay at least 150 feet away from the whale carcass.
