What marine biologists say after breaching whale lands on boat in Portsmouth, N.H.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) — A marine biologist from the New Bedford Whaling Museum was not shocked when he saw the viral video of a breaching whale landing on a fisherman’s boat in Portsmouth, N.H.

The museum’s associate curator of science and research Robert Rocha said,  “The whales and the boats are all there for the same reason, a whole school of menhaden.”

Rocha explained that the whale was likely feeding at the time it breached and landed on the boat.

“When the whale breached, I was closest to it, about three to three and a half feet from its head,” said New Hampshire resident Ryland Kenney.

Kenney described the terrifying moment a massive breaching humpback whale landed on him and his fishing partner’s boat off the New Hampshire coast Tuesday morning.

“I heard a rumble in the water and I had a sense of what it was and then thought no, this can’t be,” added Kenney.

“I immediately thought, we are going to sink or capsize, ” said Massachusetts resident Greg Paquette. “One of these two things is going to happen, we’re not getting out of this.”

Rocha also explained how warming ocean temperatures are bringing more sea creatures, like whales further north, like here off the New England Coast.

A pair of brothers from Maine were fishing nearby and jumped into action to save Kenney and Paquette.

One of the brothers, Colin Yager, captured the whole thing on camera.

Wyatt Yager drove the boat to help out the two fishermen in distress.

“It was complete shock. And then it was immediately, just drop everything and go get those guys out of the water,” said Wyatt.

Kenney and Paquette said they’re thankful to be here to tell their story.

“The whale was doing what it was supposed to be doing. It was feeding and it was just an act of being in the wrong place at the wrong time really,” concluded Kenney.