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A 20-foot minke whale died after colliding with a motorboat off the Jersey Shore.
Over the weekend, a boater in Barnegat Bay near Long Beach Island, New Jersey, shared that a vessel had struck a whale, and the force of the collision sent a boat passenger into the water.
Sea Tow, which was called in when the whale was spotted in the bay, reported to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) that the whale was dead.
About an hour prior to the crash, the New Jersey State Police Marine Unit notified MMSC that there was a whale in the bay.
Officials attempted to observe the whale, which, after the hit, was resting in shallow water on a sandbar; however, they said they could not get closer than 30 yards due to the tides.
Boat captain Charlie Nunn shared with NBC Philadelphia that this was a freak accident and was not caused by the boaters antagonising the whale. He said he believes they were in the area before the whale swam through.
Furthermore, he said the whale was likely anxious and in fight-or-flight mode, causing the forceful crash.
"They're not supposed to be in 3 feet of water," Nunn told NBC Philadelphia. "They keep bumping into something. It's probably fight-or-flight for the poor thing."
The whale will be towed to a nearby state park on Monday and undergo a necropsy, which could take several hours to complete.
Moreover, the nonprofit warned boaters to take caution in the area north of Double Creek Channel in Barnegat Bay and to stay at least 150 feet away from the whale carcass.
