It’s great to see aquatic animals from a distance, but when you’re out on a boat, you might get a closer view than you expected. That’s exactly what happened on July 23 when a breaching whale capsized a boat off the New Hampshire coast. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the damage and shared that the two men on the vessel were safe. Keep scrolling to watch the viral video and see what the Coast Guard and the two victims had to say about the incident.
A breaching whale capsized a boat
Two fishermen, Greg Paquette and Ryland Kenney, were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean on July 23 after a breaching whale capsized their boat. The Coast Guard confirmed in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that they’d received a mayday call after the whale overturned the vessel near Odiorne Point State Park.
“The occupants were ejected from the vessel as the boat capsized. Sector issued an urgent marine information broadcast (UMIB); they directed Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor to launch,” the post read.
The Coast Guard added, “A good samaritan recovered both individuals from the water. No injuries were reported.” They also noted that the whale appeared to be uninjured and the Center of Coastal Studies Marine Animal Hotline and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were also contacted.
Watch the video here:
https://x.com/NYCsidewalker/status/1816027862413017540
Greg Paquette and Ryland Kenney were rescued and uninjured
Paquette and Kenney are grateful to be alive. Brothers Wyatt Yager, 19, and Colin Yager , 16 rescued the two fishermen around 8:00 in the morning, about an hour after they first spotted the whale.
“I heard a big crackle,” Kenney, a Dover, New Hampshire resident, told Seacoastonline. “When that happened … the bow tipped up and I went to the left and as (the boat) was rolling over I kind of jumped off horizontally to avoid the whale and the boat.”
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Kenney felt like they were sent into “fight or flight mode” when he and Paquette decided to get off the boat.
"We’re glad they took such quick action," Paquette, a Groveland, Massachusetts resident, said regarding the Yager brothers. "They didn’t even think about it. We’re really grateful to both of them. "
Paquette was wearing an inflatable life jacket and remembered seeing the whale’s head hit the engine before he landed in the water, while Kenney wasn’t wearing a life jacket and didn’t have time to use the inflatable ring. Both men came away from the incident with zero injuries.
The Yager brothers didn’t hesitate to help
Wyatt, the older of the two brothers, believes he and Colin were only 20 meters away from the whale when they saw it crash into the boat. Colin’s video was circulating on social media shortly after the occurrence.
"I was just in shock. Everyone else had the same reaction and tried to get over to those people," Wyatt told Seacoastonline. "It was like, 'Oh shoot,' and then, 'We’ve got to go help these people.' All the boats dropped what they were doing to go over to help them."
The Coast Guard was also thankful for the quick rescue. In another post on X, they wrote, “We are grateful to the good samaritans for taking such quick action to rescue these two individuals. Bravo Zulu!” They also advise taking caution against whale sightings and remind boaters to contact their local Coast Guard branch.
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