Whale capsizes boat off coast of New Hampshire

RYE, N.H. -- An incredible video captured the moment a whale capsized a boat off the coast of New Hampshire Tuesday, sending two men flying into the ocean. Two teenagers nearby, one who recorded the video, came to their immediate rescue.

Humpback whale capsizes boat

"You know the risk when you come out here, it's really unusual what happened to us this morning," Greg Paquette, who was thrown overboard, told WBZ-TV.

Paquette and his friend Ryland Kenney were fishing off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when a humpback whale suddenly breached and knocked over their boat, which was about two miles off shore. 

"Thankfully it was slow enough that I could kind of swim my way out away from it before it completely capsized," Paquette said.

It took Kenney several frantic moments before he could even find Paquette in the water. 

"Not much time to react," Kenney said. "So I took a few steps off and basically did a Superman off the boat."

Two teens, Colin and Wyatt Yager, were fishing nearby when it happened. They said they saw the whale breach a few more times afterward.

Colin had his rod in one hand and a phone in the other. "It's just unreal. Completely unreal," he said. 

The whale leaped out of the water, cresting over Paquette and Kenney's boat. Paquette said the whale had a mouthful of fish and crashed down on the back of their boat, sending them flying. 

A Coast Guard crew from Station Portsmouth reported that the whale didn't appear to be hurt. The incident was reported to NOAA.

"We're in their way"

Fortunately, the men were only in the water for a minute when the two teens came to their rescue.

"We are grateful to the good Samaritans for taking such quick action to rescue these two individuals. Bravo Zulu!" the Coast Guard said on X. 

The men made it out safely, but their belongings didn't. Paquette lost his iPhone. The boat was salvaged, the Coast Guard said.

"That's the one thing we got to realize, that this is their home. This is their ocean, so we're in their way," Kenney said.

"It's not something I would care to repeat. But it is an amazing experience," Paquette told CBS New York.  

The Coast Guard asked boaters to report whale sightings to a local USCG command center.

In:
• New Hampshire
• Rye
• Rye NH News
• United States Coast Guard
• Fishing Boat
• Whales
• New Hampshire News

Mike Sullivan

Mike Sullivan is a multimedia journalist for WBZ-TV. He returned to his home state of Massachusetts after reporting in the Midwest for more than ten years.