A humpback whale slammed into a fishing boat off Long Island near Fire Island, tearing a hole in the hull and ripping a door from its hinges in a strike that nearly capsized the vessel. The family on board recorded the moment as the whale hit the side of the boat, then swam away.
Steven Heid, Steve Bashian and Oliver Samter were fishing off Moriches Inlet when the encounter unfolded, and all three escaped without injury. The impact was violent enough that Bashian later said he believed they might have gone into the ocean if the boat had been smaller, while Samter said he thought the vessel might have been damaged badly enough to go down. That is why the clip has drawn so much attention: it shows a rare marine collision that could have ended much differently.
It happened after the group saw a school of bunker fish and shut off the engine when they noticed whales feeding nearby. Heid said they were trying to do the right thing by drifting instead of pushing ahead, adding that boaters have to stay away from bunker pods because the whales are feeding. Under New York's Whale Awareness Act, boats are supposed to stay at least 300 feet from whales, and Rob DiGiovanni said the fishermen appeared to have taken appropriate precautions.
That is what makes the encounter so stark. The crew did not race toward the animals. They cut the engine, drifted and still got hit. In a fast-moving stretch of water where whales are increasingly seen feeding, the ordinary rules of distance did not prevent the strike, even though the whale quickly swam off and Heid said he was grateful the episode ended without injury to the passengers or the whale.
What remains unanswered is the one thing that matters after the footage fades: how close the whale came before impact, and whether anyone reviewed the collision under the Whale Awareness Act. For now, the boat is damaged, the family is safe and the video stands as a blunt reminder that caution in whale country lowers the risk, but does not erase it.
