Shola Lee
Newly released footage shows one man's incredibly close encounter with a breaching whale.
It was a quiet Sunday off the coast of Plymouth, Massachusetts, when Harbourmaster Chad Hunter had a close encounter that'd make you wish you paid attention to Dory's whale lessons in Finding Nemo.
At around 10am local time, the humpback whale breached the water, landed on top of the 19-foot boat and, incredibly, it was all caught on camera.
Check it out below:
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Thankfully there were no injuries, to the crew at least, we imagine the landing hurt the whale a fair bit.
There was also little damage to the boat and the crew was able to sail on, meanwhile, our computer stops working when it's too hot outside.
Chad steered the boat back into safety and spoke to NBC10 Boston about his experience.
"The boat was in the right place at the wrong time. This could have been much worse for all involved," he said.
The Harbourmaster was just glad nobody was hurt, adding: "Children like to lean over the side of the boat to watch the fish so it is very lucky that nobody got hurt here. An incident like this is pretty rare but very dangerous to boaters."
People on Twitter were also quick to reiterate how much of a close call the incident was, with one user issuing a warning: "Great lesson for intruding boaters. Baby whales weight between 50-60,000 pounds. In #plymouth #massachussetts curious boats got in the way. Whales get very hungry and do.not.focus on humans trying to get a good shot. Love to see that I durante claim! #respectnature."
Another added: "That’s what they get for disturbing it! Grrr. Leave them alone!"
While a third speculated: "Was the fishing boat catching shrimp in the humpback whales domain.and was this was payback for fishing in the humpback whale survival zone. Curious minds would like to know???????"
And it seemed pretty much everyone had the same consensus: "Did anyone consider how the whale was following this incident...?
This is how whales have each survived to be 100 years or more. They are beautiful to watch. Consider that they need room to move, to eat and come up for air . Please watch from a distance."
The incident prompted local officials to remind boaters to stay 100 yards or more away from the area and while it's not fully understood why whales breach, common explanations suggest the behaviour is a form of communication, to ward off predators, or to clean themselves.
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