Two groups of fishermen had recent close encounters with humpback whales off the Jersey Shore.
In early June, two men fishing in a 25′ boat not far offshore near Seaside Park, NJ were thrown from their boat when it was capsized by a humpback whale. The juvenile humpback was apparently feeding on the same school of fish that the fishermen were trying to haul in.
“He was six feet in front of me, kind of like if you’ve ever saw ‘Jaws,’” angler Robert Riley told ABC 7 of the harrowing moment a whale sprang from the sea on Monday. “The fish just breached the water and I was like, ‘It’s going to land on us.'”
“The part I’ll never get out is the whale coming out of the water,” Riley told ABC. “The noise of the whale hitting the boat, it was loud.”
Riley and a companion swam to shore unhurt. The boat subsequently washed ashore and the whale headed out to sea.
Last Monday, four fishermen had an up-close and personal encounter with two humpback whales, while fishing 65 miles off the coast of Long Beach Island around 5 p.m. near the Hudson Canyon area. Fortunately, this time, the boat did not capsize.
Out of nowhere, two humpback whales breached the surface of the water, one that struck the side of the boat.
Mark “Redman” Haley an avid fisherman, was out fishing with his two sons and a friend when the boat was hit by the whale. Haley goes offshore to fish around 50 times a year and said they see dolphins and whales when they go out, but they usually swim around or near the vessels and not strike them.
“We were fishing in an area where there were a lot of dolphins and whales, and the whales usually do not bother us, but, for whatever reason, this one came up and struck the boat port side and really put us for a scare,” Haley told NJ Advance Media. “Fortunately, the boat didn’t get capsized, and we did not go overboard.”
The boaters said the whales swam away and did not appear to be hurt. No one aboard the boat was injured either. A short video of the encounter: