A humpback whale that was captured on video crashing into a boat off New Hampshire may have been fishing, marine biologists told Business Insider.
A fishing boat about a mile off the coast of New Hampshire capsized on Tuesday after a humpback whale came out of the water and smashed into it, according to video of the incident.
The two men who were aboard the boat told local outlet WCVB that they hadn’t seen the whale for a couple minutes when it suddenly popped up and came down on the back of the boat.
The video, which was taken by a pair of teen brothers who were on another boat nearby, showed the front of the boat abruptly tilting upwards before coming down on its side and eventually capsizing after the whale disappeared beneath the surface.
One of the men dove sideways off the boat while the other was thrown overboard, according to WCVB. Neither of them were seriously injured in the incident, with one telling the outlet: “It’s kind of a miracle that I’m alive.”
While some people online described the encounter as an attack by an angry whale, marine biologists saw the video differently.
“What I see is a humpback whale feeding on bait fish”, Andrew Trites, director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, told Business Insider in an email.
