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A whale was killed after it was struck by a motorboat off the New Jersey shore, with the forceful collision sending one passenger overboard.
Video footage shared online of the sudden collision showed the motorboat rocking back and forth as the 20-foot-long minke whale swam away in Barnegat Bay on Saturday afternoon.
The crash nearly tipped the boat over and sent one passenger flying overboard into the water. The person who went overboard was able to tread water next to the boat until they were saved, authorities said.
The whale was later found dead after it went to rest on a sandbar in shallow water, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a non-profit rescue and release organization, said.
Officials with the organization weren’t able to reach within 30 yards of the whale due to tidal conditions and were therefore unable to conduct a more in-depth examination of the animal, the organization said in a statement.
“At this point, we really don’t have much to go on,” Jay Pagel, the stranding coordinator at the center, told the Associated Press. “The side of the animal that we were able to observe had no obvious marks on it that we could see. But again, our visibility was very limited.”
Pagel said there were reports that the whale had been injured before the collision. He also noted other video footage shows the whale appearing to make contact with a pontoon boat after the first accident.
The whale will be towed to a state park on Monday for a necropsy, which will determine its official cause of death.
The necropsy is expected to take several hours to complete.
The agency is now urging boaters to use caution in the area and to keep at least 150 feet away from the whale carcass for the time being.