humpback whale CRASHES onto boat Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts

humpback whale CRASHES onto boat Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts
Shocking video caught the moment a mammoth humpback whale breached onto a 19-foot motor boat in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, smashing the vessel's skylight in the bow and leaving it bobbing like a cork in the water.

Three humpback whales, which grow an average size of 49 to 52 feet long and weigh up to 66,000 pounds, drew dozens of boaters to the waters near White Horse Beach in Plymouth over the weekend to watch them feed on bait fish called pogies, which school in the harbor.
About 10 a.m. on Sunday, the whales, which eat by opening their giant jaws and scooping up as many fish as they can, were 'surge feeding,' when they swim under their prey and scoop them up as they rise out of the water.

Shocking video caught the moment a mammoth humpback whale breached onto a 19-foot motor boat in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, smashing the vessel's skylight in the bow and leaving it bobbing like a cork in the water.
Three humpback whales, which grow an average size of 49 to 52 feet long and weigh up to 66,000 pounds, drew dozens of boaters to the waters near White Horse Beach in Plymouth over the weekend to watch them feed on bait fish called pogies, which school in the harbor.

About 10 a.m. on Sunday, the whales, which eat by opening their giant jaws and scooping up as many fish as they can, were 'surge feeding,' when they swim under their prey and scoop them up as they rise out of the water.

'It was insane,' Ryder Parkhurst, who saw the collision, told NBC Boston. 'The guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all. Pops up, bang! Right on the bow of the guy's boat.'

'I just saw the boat go freaking flying, it was crazy,' Parkhurst told the station. 'It was nuts. I couldn't believe the thing was still floating.'
The boat was able to safely navigate back to the boat ramp and sustained only minor damage.

'It was just shocking,' said Justin Enggasser, whose son shot the footage from a kayak about 100 feet away. 'There was a lot of relief to see the boat pop back up because the bow really did submerge.'

Aside from being shaken up, none of the passengers of the vessel were hurt.

'If someone was on the bow of that boat, this really could have been a tragic story,' Plymouth Harbormaster Chad Hunter told CBS News Boston.