BOSTON – The heart-stopping video lasted all of seven seconds — a boat capsized by a whale off the New Hampshire coast Tuesday sending two fishermen flying into the ocean.

But expert Linnea Mayfield says an encounter like this isn’t uncommon. “At least in the New England area, we’ve seen it at least once a year for the past several years,” she said.

Mayfield is a Marine Naturalist at Boston Harbor City Cruises helping the New England Aquarium understand the whales off our coast.

“It does look like a very actively feeding whale,” she said. 

The whale was looking for a big gulp of fish by blowing bubbles to the water’s surface. “They’ll drive those to the surface and then they’ll lunge through that school of fish and gather a whole bunch of them in their mouth,” Mayfield said.

“Definitely not intentional”

She also said the whale landing on the boat was an accident and that their “blind spot” could be to blame.

“There is a blind spot on whales,” she said. “Their eyes are actually located near the corners of their mouth on either side of their head. So right below where that chin area is, they maybe just totally missed that the boat was as close as it was. This was definitely not intentional.”

Mayfield said this is a teaching moment for boaters. If you see a whale nearby, maneuver the boat at least 100 feet behind it and slowly move away from the area.

“These animals are very aware and they are vulnerable to human activity,” she said. “This is not a positive experience interaction for the boaters, it’s not a positive interaction for the whale.”