A forty-ton whale that jumped out of the water onto a couple’s yacht, smashing the mast, may have been ‘harassed’ by the boat beforehand.

The couple – Ralph Mothes, 59, and Paloma Werner, 50 – were sailing their yacht off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa when the whale breached, flipping into the air and landing on the boat.

It destroyed the yacht’s mast and damaged other parts of the boat as it thrashed about on the deck before sliding back into the water – leaving some skin and blubber behind.

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Mothes and Werner were not injured. ‘It really was quite incredible but very scary. The whale was about the same size as the boat,’ said Werner.

The couple posted pictures of the incident to their Facebook page , writing: ‘Apparently he did not see us as the visibility is poor and we were sailing so had not the motor on. He was just having fun.’

‘We thought the whale was going to go under the boat and come up on the other side. We thought it would see us… There was hardly any wind, so we couldn’t get out of the way. We didn’t have time to take any evasive action,’ Werner told the Cape Argus newspaper.

But officials are now investigating whether the whale was being provoked before it breached.

The manager of the local Waterfront Boat Company, Richard Smith, said that some of his crew members who had been conducting a whale-watching tour said that they saw a yacht harassing the whale prior to the incident.

‘They said the yacht kept coming to the whale. Speeding straight at it and annoying it,’ he said.

By law, boats in the area must keep 300m away from whales, and must take evasive action to avoid them.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Metro Reporter

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