A New Hampshire fisherman whose boat was capsized by a breaching whale spoke out about the harrowing experience, detailing the moments leading up to and after the shocking incident caught on video.
Ryland Kenney, who was forced to jump in the water to avoid the whale, joined “America’s Newsroom” alongside one of the teens who helped rescue him, Colin Yager, to discuss his reaction to the incident and why he responded the way he did.
“I was in fight or flight mode, so just trying to get off the boat as quickly as possible because I know it was going under once I heard the whale crunch the engine,” Kenney said on Friday. “So I just kind of jumped sideways, horizontally to get away from everything. When I hit the water… I was in kind of temperature shock because about 55 degrees, so it was really hard for me to catch my breath.”
“I couldn’t locate my friend Greg,” he continued. “He was actually underneath the boat at the time, and it felt like hours, but it was about maybe five seconds. I finally found him, so once we reunited, I felt a little more calm.”
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Shocking video showed the whale breaching out of the water in Portsmouth Harbor on Tuesday morning and overturning the boat after it landed on the vessel.
Colin and his brother Wyatt were fishing on another boat in the harbor when the whale breached. After catching the moment on video, they rushed to help the distressed boaters, WMTW-TV reported.
Ryland Kenney was forced to jump in the water to avoid the whale before teen Colin Yager raced to rescue him. @ryanwhitney6 / XShocking video showed the whale breaching out of the water in Portsmouth Harbor on Tuesday morning and overturning the boat after it landed on the vessel. @ryanwhitney6 / X
“It was just completely insane. I was just looking in the right direction, luckily, and I saw the whole thing happen, and I had my camera out, all ready to record whatever I saw, because I just wanted to record stuff,” Yager said. “I saw it start to go up, so I just pressed the record button and… the rest is on video.”
The US Coast Guard confirmed that neither of the boaters were hurt, and the whale also appeared to be unharmed by the incident, according to WBTS-TV.
Whales are common in New Hampshire waters, especially between June and August, and a whale — possibly the one that breached over the boat — was seen in the same area before it happened.
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Ironically, Kenney’s family asked him about the likelihood of something like this happening prior to the incident.
Colin and his brother Wyatt were fishing on another boat in the harbor when the whale breached. After catching the moment on video, they rushed to help the distressed boaters, WMTW-TV reported. @ryanwhitney6 / X
“I’ve actually taken pictures of the whale breaching, days before, and I had actually had a dinner with my family, and my family was asking me when I was showing them photos of the whale, ‘Aren’t you scared of the whale potentially knocking your… boat in the water?’ And I and I kind of said, ‘Oh, well, I’ve done a lot of research, and the probability of that happening is like lightning strikes,’” he said. “And of course lightning strikes the next day.”
Fox News’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
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At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
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Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
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Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
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Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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The streets of Portsmouth are still in the process of being cleaned up, as seen the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, following a huge snow storm.
It may be March, but winter in New Hampshire is far from over. Just one week after a blizzard tore through the state with heavy snow and high winds, the state is getting another round of snowfall.
The state will get three to five inches during the evening and night of Tuesday, March 3, says the National Weather Service (NWS) of Gray, Maine. While the accumulation will not be significant, the snowfall may cause dangerous road conditions and a layer of ice on the ground in certain parts of the state.
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Here’s what to know before tonight’s snow in New Hampshire, including snow totals and timing.
When will it snow in NH tonight?
According to the NWS, it will start snowing in New Hampshire during mid-afternoon or early evening and continue through the night. Specifically, snow will arrive to the southern part of the state around 2-3 p.m., spreading northwards through the rest of New Hampshire by 5 p.m.
Rain or freezing rain will mix in later this evening across southern New Hampshire, creating a wintry mix. All precipitation should move out of the state by midnight.
Due to the timing of today’s snowfall, the Tuesday evening commute will be affected, with the NWS warning to slow down and exercise caution while driving.
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Warmer weather: It may not look like it now, but spring is on its way: Nature News
How much snow will NH get tonight?
New Hampshire will get one to four inches of snow tonight, with one to two inches in northern New Hampshire, two to three inches in southern New Hampshire and three to four inches in the center of the state, with the possibility for five inches in localized areas.
In the Seacoast specifically, Portsmouth, Rye, Hampton and York are expected to get between two to three inches of snow, while Dover, Exeter and Rochester may get up to four.
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The wintry mix may also cause a light glaze of ice across southern New Hampshire.
Blizzard snowfall totals: Latest snowfall total from New Hampshire, Maine after blizzard
NH weather watches and warnings
The NWS has issued a winter weather advisory for the state of New Hampshire, in effect from 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 through 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4.