A 20-foot minke whale died after colliding with a motorboat off the Jersey Shore, officials said. The force of the collision sent a boat passenger into the water.
A boater in Barnegat Bay near Long Beach Island, New Jersey, reported Saturday afternoon that a vessel had struck a whale, 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 New Jersey 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 they said they could not get closer than 30 yards due to the tides, according to MMSC.
Witness video from the scene that was verified by NBC News shows a whale swimming under a motorboat 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.
Boat captain Charlie Nunn 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 3 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 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.
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