A breaching whale came out of the water at the wrong place and ended up sinking a fire crew’s rescue boat.
Carteret Fire Department Chief Eric Wahl told ABC News that he and his crew were going about seven or eight knots when “all of a sudden, there was this loud bang.”
The bang was a whale that was surfacing.
The animal tore a large hole in the back wall of the vessel, allowing water to rush in.
“We grabbed what we could. We sounded our distress signals,” Wahl said.
Within moments, the rescue boat sank, and the firecrew needed rescuing themselves.
“The three guys were in their life jackets, and we managed to get them on board,” Cody Binkley said.
No one was hurt, Fox News reported.
Civilians told the first responders that they had seen a pod of whales surface in the area about 30 seconds to a minute before the fire crew arrived.
Sara Morris, the executive director of Shoals Marine Laboratory, said the whale probably accidentally hit their boat.
“I think the boat was in the wrong place at the wrong time, not something where the whale was specifically targeting a boat,” Morris told ABC News.
The incident is under review, according to Fox News.
© 2026 Cox Media Group
