Breaching whale capsizes fishing boat (video)

A breaching whale landed on a fishing boat near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, capsizing it and sending its two occupants into the ocean. Both are safe, and the whale is also believed to be unharmed.

The brothers who captured the video said they had seen the whale breach a couple of times before the incident, which is why they had their phones out to catch it on camera.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it the whale did not appear to be injured in the encounter. The Coast Guard said the vessel was salvaged.

Sara Morris, of the University of New Hampshire Shoals Marine Laboratory, said the whale was likely lunge feeding when it came in contact with the boat. 

"I think one of the key things is that when whales are sighted to encourage boaters to keep their distance," Morris said. "The whales are moving around underwater and coming up, potentially in an area different from where they went down, and we want to give them as much leeway as we possibly can to avoid a situation like what you see here."

WMUR