NEW JERSEY (WPIX) — A person went overboard Saturday after a boat hit a whale off the New Jersey coast on Saturday.
The whale was struck shortly before 4 p.m. in Barnegat Bay, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, and the vessel nearly capsized in the incident.
A video posted to social media seemingly shows the incident, as the 20-foot minke whale struggles near the back of the boat and a person falls into the water. Onlookers can be heard yelling “shut the motor off” and “man overboard” before the whale struggles to swim off.
The person thrown overboard manages to tread water next to the boat.
The whale, meanwhile, was found dead on a sandbar outside the channel. The whale will be moved on Monday, and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center will conduct a necropsy to determine how it died.
“At this point, we really don’t have much to go on,” Jay Pagel, stranding coordinator at the center, said Sunday. “The side of the animal that we were able to observe had no obvious marks on it that we could see. But again, our visibility was very limited.”
Pagel said there were reports the whale had injuries prior to the collision captured on video. He noted there was a second video posted online that appears to show the whale making contact with a pontoon boat after the initial collision.
“Boaters should be advised to use caution in the area north of Double Creek Channel in Barnegat Bay and to keep a minimum of 150 feet away from the whale carcass for your safety,” representatives of the center said in a post to Facebook.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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