A 20 -foot minke whale died after colliding with a motor boat from the Jersey coast, authorities said. The strength of the collision sent a passenger in boat to the water.
A navigator at Barnegat Bay, near Long Beach Island, New Jersey, reported on Saturday afternoon that a ship had hit a whale, the Stranding Center for Marine Mammals or MMSC, on Facebook. Be Tow, who was called when the whale was seen in the bay, MMSC informed that the whale was dead.
The collision caused the boat to almost turn over and that a passenger falls downboard, MMSC said. There was no information about the person’s condition, but they didn’t seem to injure.
Approximately an hour before the accident, the Marina Police Unit of New Jersey notified MMSC that there was a whale in the bay.
The authorities tried to observe the whale, which, after the coup, rested in shallow waters in a sand bank, but said they could not approach 30 yards due to the tides, according to MMSC.
Video of the witnesses of the scene that was verified by NBC News shows a whale that swim under a motor boat before tilting the ship next to it. You can see a person falling off the boat.
Other videos published by the witness show a whale swimming around the shallow waters and violently its tail.
The Captain of the Charlie Nunn ship told NBC Philadelphia that this was a strange accident and that the navigators who antagonized the whale. He said he believes they were in the area before the whale swim.
He said that the whale was probably anxious and in fight or flight mode, causing the blunt shock.
“They are not supposed to have 3 feet of water,” NBN told NBC Philadelphia. “They keep crashing with something. It is probably fighting or flight for the poor.”
The whale will be towed to a nearby state park on Monday and will undergo necropsy, which could take several hours to complete, MMSC said.
The non -profit organization warned navigators who are caution in the area north of Double Creek Channel in Barnegat Bay and remain at least 150 feet away from the whale chain.
