Wyatt Yager, 19, was with his brother Colin, 16, on another fishing boat when they saw the whale before the incident and began recording.

“I saw it go up so I was just lucky enough to be facing the right direction,” Colin told WCVB-TV.

“I saw it come up, and I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s going to hit the boat,’ and then it kind of started to flip,” he said.

Ryland Kenney was also aboard the capsized boat, telling WCVB-TV; “Everything seemed like in slow motion. It was really weird. Everyone was like, ‘Oh, it was eight seconds. How’d you move so fast?’ But it was almost slow motion, like a movie.”

One of the men jumped for the boat while the other was thrown overboard as it began to flip before the Yager brother rushed to their aid and helped pull them out of the water.

“Truly grateful to them,” Paquette told WCVB-TV. “They were making the video, dropped everything, zoomed right over and plucked us out.”

“It’s kind of a miracle that I’m alive,” Kenney said. “I don’t know what was going through my head. Just, kind of, survival.”

The US Coast Guard said no one had sustained injuries in the incident and it had been reported to the Center of Coastal Studies Marine Animal Hotline and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.