A passenger aboard a whale-watching boat in South Africa was knocked overboard Sunday when a Bryde’s whale bumped the vessel while feeding on sardines.
The man, who was thrown a life vest and helped back onto the boat, was not injured.
A spokeswoman for Raggy Charters in Port Elizabeth told For The Win Outdoors that the whale also seemed to be OK and “continued feeding” after the incident.
The accompanying footage begins with dolphins feeding during early stages of the seasonal sardine run, a mass migration that attracts voracious predators large and small.
Viewers can hear the whale’s bump at 1:17. Moments later the whale erupts at the surface in a lunge-feeding display just inches from the boat, causing the man to fall overboard.
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“Dad! Dad?” a woman cries to her father, who begins swimming toward the boat. “Are you OK, dad?” A few second’s later, more calmly: “Dad’s overboard.”
The man received assistance from another vessel’s crew but was ultimately reunited with his daughter and fellow passengers.
Raggy Charters began its Facebook post with the title: “Sardine Run starts with a Bang.”
The description, written by naturalist Lloyd Edwards, begins:
“I guess it is something that we always fear and try our level best to avoid during the last 23 years. When a whale hits a whale-watching boat, there can always be damage. This time we were extremely lucky.”
The vessel was traveling parallel to feeding dolphins when the schooled-up sardines and dolphins suddenly veered in front of the boat.
“We could see them eating sardines that were being chased under the boat,” Edwards continued. “We immediately put the outboards into neutral but left them running. This allows whales to still be able to hear us.”
At this moment the collision occurred, followed by the breaching Bryde’s whale, and the rescue effort.
Edwards recalled: “I was filming from the platform on top of the cabin when all of a sudden it felt like we had been hit by another boat. Then the next minute this Bryde’s whale came breaching out of the water above my eye level. I have never seen a lunge feed so high out of the water!”
Port Elizabeth is in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. The sardine run along the country’s eastern shore is expected to last several weeks.
