man overboard – Syndication Server

Watch: Man knocked overboard by lunge-feeding whale

A passenger aboard a whale-watching boat in South Africa was knocked overboard Sunday when a Bryde’s whale bumped the vessel while lunge-feeding on sardines.

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.

“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.

Floppy newborn whale – and man overboard – caught on video

A tourist in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, this week shared footage showing a momma humpback whale and calf swim beneath a boat and seemingly bump the vessel hard enough to knock a man overboard.

A tourist in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, has shared footage showing a humpback whale and her calf swimming beneath a boat and seemingly bumping the vessel hard enough to knock a man overboard.

“Whale Knocks Man off Boat, Gets Hit By Prop,” Lou Boyer wrote in his YouTube description.

In the drone footage, captured Nov. 29 from Playa Grande Resort near Baja California’s tip, viewers can see the whales approach the boat beginning at 52 seconds. The man falls overboard at 1:30, with the two whales partially beneath the vessel, and a patch of blood appears near momma whale’s flukes at 1:39, as she and her calf emerge into full view.

A natural assumption was that momma whale received a cut from something sharp, such as the vessel’s prop. But several researchers noted, after watching the footage, that the pale-colored calf has an extremely floppy flukes, indicating that the mammal was born very recently, perhaps only hours before Boyer captured his footage.

The blood, many agreed, spilled from momma whale’s birth canal, a common occurrence after a birth.

“The calf’s flukes are completely flaccid, opening and closing constantly, and the dorsal fin is also floppy,” researcher Nico Randsome wrote on the Cetal Fauna group Facebook page. “Mom is supporting the calf, it is very uncoordinated, and must have been born not long before the drone started to document them. The blood definitely looks like it is coming from the mom; no visible injury. So very cool.”

While momma and calf might have nudged the boat, it appears that the man in the pink shirt fell overboard mostly as a result of the weight shift as other people on the boat rushed to the starboard rail to view the whales. The man was quickly pulled back on board.

The other whale shown lingering with mom and calf is almost certainly a male “escort” hoping, at some point, to mate with the female.

An unrelated highlight of Boyer’s video begins at 2:39, as turkey vultures begin pursuing his drone as it’s being retrieved back over land. At 3:18 one of the large birds swoops in and is captured on camera at close range.

Boyer, who is from Huntington Beach, Calif., took evasive measures and safely retrieved his device.

–Images courtesy of Lou Boyer

Watch: Humpback whale nudges boat, sending man overboard

A tourist in Cabo San Lucas, Mex., while flying a drone from his hotel balcony, has captured footage of a humpback whale seemingly knocking a man from a small boat.

A tourist in Cabo San Lucas, Mex., while flying a drone from his hotel balcony, has captured footage of a humpback whale seemingly causing a man to fall overboard.

The footage, captured earlier this month by Lou Boyer from Playa Grande Resort, is wonderfully narrated but here are a few observations:

The whales in question appear at 52 seconds and involve a momma humpback whale and a newborn calf, and most likely a male “escort” whale.

It’s almost certainly not the father, as mentioned in the footage. Male humpbacks mate with multiple females and do not show loyalty to a single female after mating.

It’s typical for an “escort” to travel with a momma and calf, according to researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, as sort of a protector hoping, at some point, for a mating opportunity.

Also, keep an eye on the man, or person, in the pink shirt. As momma whale approaches the boat while supporting the calf on her head, the man lays down at the bow and tries to touch the calf.

As the whales swim beneath the boat toward the stern, the other people move to the port side briefly while the man in the pink shirt walks toward the stern on the starboard side.

The whale seems to be nudging the boat just before the other people rush back to the starboard side, causing the boat to sharply tilt, dumping the man overboard.

So this sudden shift of weight, perhaps more than the nudging of the vessel by the whale, appears to have led to the man falling overboard. (He was safely lifted back aboard.)

At this point, sadly, a small patch of blood appears near momma whale’s fluke, so she may have been nicked by the prop or other sharp object.

An unrelated highlight begins at 2:39, as turkey vultures begin pursuing Boyer’s drone as it’s being retrieved over the rocky landscape. At 3:18 one of the large birds swoops in and is captured on camera at close range.

Boyer, who is from Huntington Beach, Calif., took evasive measures and safely retrieved his device.

Although tourism is light in Cabo San Lucas because of the COVID-19 pandemic, prime whale-watching season is underway.