‘Shocking’: Boaters speak out after breaching whale crashes down on their vessel off New Hampshire

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — In both an amazing and frightening moment caught on camera, a massive whale breached the ocean’s surface off the coast of New Hampshire and crashed down on the boat, causing it to capsize, according to WHIO-TV’s sister station, Boston 25.

Greg Paquette is the owner of the 21-foot boat.

“Next thing we know he just came right up and landed on the transom of the boat,” said Paquette who is from Groveland, Massachusetts.

Greg was on an early morning fishing trip with a buddy. He noticed the whale getting closer — but never thought he’d hear then see this.

“All I heard was “Whoa!” he exclaimed. “After that, I turned around and the whale’s head was coming down on top of the engine and I just felt the weight,” Paquette continued.

As the whale came crashing down the boat went under taking on water. His friend jumped overboard and Greg flipped over with the boat.

Colin Yager, 16, of Maine, was fishing nearby with his older brother Wyatt and happened to be filming the water when the whale suddenly breached onto a boat in Portsmouth Harbor.

“Scary but something you don’t see every day,” said Wyatt.

“It came up way out of the water and it was going for those pogies and it knocked some out of the air. You can see it in that video. I saw it and heard it land on the boat and it was shocking,” said Yager.

The impact of the breach nearly sank the vessel.

Wyatt Yager and his brother Colin rushed over to pull Paquette and his friend from the water.

Paquette is grateful for their quick response.

“As soon as they saw it happening they just dropped everything and zoomed right over to us in seconds. We weren’t in the water a minute,” said Paquette.

And now he’s got one big fish tale for sure. “We have a good story to tell the kids,” he said as he laughed.

The boat is now on dry land but a lot more than the engine needs to be repaired. Paquette told Boston 25 that won’t stop him. He plans to be back out fishing as soon as it’s fixed.

In the video, you see one of the boaters wearing a Dayton sweatshirt. His cousin is a student at the University of Dayton.

No one was injured in the incident.

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