Video shows whale capsizing boat off New Hampshire coast, fishermen rescued

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

Two men thrown overboard

“You know the risk when you come out here, it’s really unusual what happened to us this morning,” said Greg Paquette, who was thrown overboard.

Paquette and his friend Ryland Kenney were fishing off the coast of Rye, New Hampshire, when a whale suddenly breached and knocked over their boat. 

“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 appeared to not be injured. The incident was reported to NOAA.

“This is their home”

Fortunately, the men were only in the water for a minute when the two boys 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 not so much. 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.

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

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.