sailboat capsized by whale

Friends' sailing adventure ends in a dramatic rescue after a whale sinks their boat in the Pacific

What started as a sailing adventure for one man and three of his friends ended in a dramatic rescue after a giant whale sank his boat, leaving the group stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for hours and with a tale that might just be stranger than fiction.

Rick Rodriguez and his friends had been on what was meant to be a weekslong crossing to French Polynesia on his sailboat, Raindancer, when the crisis unfolded just over a week ago.

They had been enjoying some pizza for lunch when they heard a loud bang.

"It just happened in an instant. It was just a very violent impact with some crazy-sounding noises and the whole boat shook," Rodriguez told NBC's "TODAY" show in an interview that aired Wednesday.

"It sounded like something broke and we immediately looked to the side and we saw a really big whale bleeding,” he said.

The impact was so severe that the boat's propeller was ruptured and the fiberglass around it shattered, sending the vessel into the ocean.

As water began to rush into the boat, the group snapped into survival mode.

"There was just an incredible amount of water coming in, very fast," Rodriguez said.

Alana Litz, a member of the crew, described the ordeal as "surreal."

"Even when the boat was going down, I felt like it was just a scene out of a movie. Like everything was floating," she said.

Rodriguez and his friends acted fast, firing off mayday calls and text messages as they activated a life raft and dinghy.

He said he sent a text message to his brother Roger in Miami and to a friend, Tommy Joyce, who was sailing a "buddy boat" in the area as a safety measure.

“Tommy this is no joke," Rodriguez wrote in a text message. "We hit a whale and the ship went down."

"We are in the life raft," he texted his friend. "We need help *ASAP."

Raindancer sank within about 15 minutes, the group said. Their rescue took much longer that, with the four friends out on the open waters for roughly nine hours before they could be sure they would live to tell the tale.

Peruvian officials picked up the group's distress signal and the U.S. Coast Guard was alerted, with its District 11 in Alameda, California, being in charge of U.S. vessels in the Pacific.

Ultimately, it was another sailing vessel, the Rolling Stones, that came to the group's aid after Joyce shared the incident on a Facebook boat watch group.

Geoff Stone, captain of the Rolling Stones, said they were about 60 or 65 miles away when his crew members realized that their vessel was the closest boat.

After searching the waters, they were eventually able to locate the group of friends.

“We were shocked that we found them," Stone said.

The timing of the rescue, which unfolded at night, appeared to be critical as the Stones' crew members were able to see the light from the dinghy bobbing in the darkness.

Rodriguez lost his boat and the group of friends said they also lost their passports and many of their possessions, but they said they were just grateful to be alive.

The severity of the injuries sustained by the whale were not immediately clear.

Kate Wilson, a spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission, told The Washington Post, which first reported the story, that there have been about 1,200 reports of whales and boats colliding since a worldwide database launched in 2007.

Collisions causing significant damage are rare, the Coast Guard told the outlet. It noted that the last rescue attributed to impact from a whale was the sinking of a 40-foot J-Boat in 2009 off Baja California. The crew in that incident was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.

One member of Raindancer's sailing crew, Bianca Brateanu, said the more recent incident, however harrowing, left her feeling more confident in her survival skills.

“This experience made me realize how, you know how capable we are, and how, how skilled we are to manage and cope with situations like this,” she said.

In an Instagram post, Rodriguez said he would remember his boat "for the rest of my life."

"What’s left of my home, the pictures on the wall, belongings, pizza in the oven, cameras, journals, all of it, will forever be preserved by the sea," he said.

"As for me, I had a temporary mistrust in the ocean. But I’m quickly realizing I’m still the same person," Rodriguez wrote. “I often think about the whale who likely lost its life, but is hopefully ok. I'm not sure what my next move will be. But my attraction to the sea hasn’t been shaken."

Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London. 

Sam Brock is an NBC News correspondent.

Rescued at sea: After a whale sank their sailboat, Florida crew stranded in South Pacific

• A 44-foot sailing ship, Raindancer, was hit by a whale on March 13, sinking the boat in the South Pacific.
• The four people on board were adrift in a life raft and dinghy with a satellite phone and some supplies.
• Phone calls, texts and social media helped lead another ship, the Rolling Stones, to rescue the castaways in about 10 hours.

A lifelong dream sailing trip turned into a potentially life-threatening ordeal for a four-person crew after a whale shipwrecked their boat.

Rick Rodriguez, owner of the sailing ship Raindancer, and three crewmembers onboard were amidst a voyage of more than 3,000 nautical miles to French Polynesia in the South Pacific. The 44-foot cruising boat had left the Galapagos at the end of February, after passing through the Panama Canal three weeks earlier.

The crew would make it to French Polynesia, but not in the manner expected.

More than halfway to the Marquesas Islands, disaster struck: They were eating homemade pizza for lunch "when it felt like we ran into a concrete wall," Rodriguez recalled in a note posted March 14 on the Facebook Boatwatch Group .

"I heard a loud crashing noise simultaneous with a metal clanking. I heard (crewmember) Alana (Litz) yell, 'we hit a whale,' then I looked to port and saw a huge whale, and blood gushing out of the side of it as it began swimming down."

"It felt like a scene out of a movie," Litz told NBC's Today show during an interview posted Wednesday . 

'Doing the right thing': Slovakia becomes first Western nation to send fighter jets to Ukraine. Live updates

Scottish dry dock accident: Ship dislodges, tips over in Scotland dry dock; dozens injured

A whale of an emergency in the South Pacific

A former professional yacht captain, Rodriguez saw that the collision "opened up multiple holes (and) cracks near the stern of the boat and the water was up to the floorboards within about 30 seconds. Maybe less," he said in a post on Instagram .

About the boat, which he purchased in 2021 and had lived on, Rodriguez said, "I made attempts to save the boat but I was, unfortunately, unsuccessful."

The crew quickly gathered safety equipment, some supplies including water, emergency gear and  electronics including a satellite phone, satellite Wi-Fi hotspot and a power bank. The dinghy was launched and loaded. Rodriguez used a VHF radio on board to make a mayday call and set off an emergency beacon, he told The Washington Post .

Before Raindancer "took her last breath about 15 minutes after she got hit," Rodriguez said, the crew were in a dinghy and a lifeboat was deployed. "I’m proud of the way our crew handled the situation, and the first priority on any boat is always the safety of the crew and passengers," he said on Instagram.

Rescue mission: Wisconsin man sailing around the world rescues castaway crew in South Pacific

Now adrift, seafarers awaited rescue

Rodriguez, 31, of Tavernier, Florida, activated a Globalstar SPOT tracker, which regularly transmits its location, and continued sending a mayday call hourly on the radio, The Post reported.

Meanwhile, the crew's distress signal had been picked up by officials in Peru, who alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, The Post reported. 

A commercial ship 90 miles to the south changed course toward the castaways after getting an urgent broadcast from the Coast Guard and there were also about two dozen boats participating in an around-the-world yachting rally sailing a similar route, the Post reported.

With the crew in the dinghy and life raft, Rodriguez sent a text message to friend Tommy Joyce, a sailor whose boat was about 180 miles behind on the same route, as a safety precaution..

“Tommy this is no joke,” he typed. “We hit a whale and the ship went down.”

“Tell as many boats as you can,” Rodriguez said. “Battery is dangerously low.”

Rodriguez also texted his brother, Roger, in Miami, to let him and his mother know the situation. He also asked his brother to relay their location via WhatsApp to Joyce. 

Online lifeline helps save South Pacific castaways

Joyce also posted a note about the incident on the Facebook page for  Boatwatch , a volunteer network of amateur radio operators who search for missing boats and people lost at sea.

"It was the Boatwatch group that ended up having somebody on there who knew" a 45-foot catamaran called the Rolling Stones was the closest boat, Joyce told Today.

"I think we were about 60-65 miles away when we realized that we were the closest boat," the boat's captain Geoff Stone told Today. 

Stone of Muskego, Wisconsin, was circumnavigating the globe aboard the Rolling Stones, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , part of the USA TODAY Network.

When they learned about the boat's dilemma, the crew didn't hesitate. "It was going to take us a while to get there, but we were going to change our course," said Mark Moriarty, Stone's father-in-law, who was also on board.

When Rodriguez turned on the satellite radio and hotspot two hours later, there was a message from Joyce: “We got you bud.”

Rescue ship used beacon, coordinates for nighttime recovery

Just more than nine hours later, the crew on Rolling Stones saw the flashing light of the dinghy and rescued the castaways. As the Rolling Stones approached, they spotted a beacon and a flare and the crews communicated via radio.

"I thought for sure the hardest part was going to be locating them," Stone said. "Luckily with the new technologies ... the latest coordinates we were given was all very accurate."

What's everyone talking about?: Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news

Earthquake: At least 9 killed as quake in Afghanistan, Pakistan sends people fleeing from homes

Stone, reached on his vessel on the way to an island in French Polynesia, told the Journal Sentinel the last few days have been "a real humbling experience."

"The right place at the right time to help them out was just by chance," he said. "I'm really glad and happy that we were able to do that."

Rodriguez mourned the loss of his ship, Raindancer, on Instagram, saying it "had all my belongings on it … it was my ticket to exploring the world, she was my refuge, my rock, the one place I could be where I felt myself, she was my friend, I would give to her and she would give back memories, lessons, and stories. … In the end, she was lost at sea, and left myself and the crew with one last incredible story."

Contributing: Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter:  @mikesnider .

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

Sailboat crew rescued in Pacific after abandoning ship sunk by whale

Four people aboard the raindancer were stranded in the pacific ocean for 10 hours.

His circumstances sounded straight out of “Moby-Dick,” but Rick Rodriguez wasn’t kidding. In his first text messages from the life raft, he said he was in serious trouble.

“Tommy this is no joke,” he typed to his friend and fellow sailor Tommy Joyce. “We hit a whale and the ship went down.”

“Tell as many boats as you can,” Rodriguez also urged. “Battery is dangerously low.”

On March 13, Rodriguez and three friends were 13 days into what was expected to be a three-week crossing from the Galápagos to French Polynesia on his 44-foot sailboat, Raindancer. Rodriguez was on watch, and he and the others were eating a vegetarian pizza for lunch around 1:30 p.m. In an interview with The Washington Post later conducted via satellite phone, Rodriguez said the ship had good winds and was sailing at about 6 knots when he heard a terrific BANG!

“The second pizza had just come out of the oven, and I was dipping a slice into some ranch dressing,” he said. “The back half of the boat lifted violently upward and to starboard.”

The sinking itself took just 15 minutes, Rodriguez said. He and his friends managed to escape onto a life raft and a dinghy. The crew spent just 10 hours adrift, floating about nine miles before a civilian ship plucked them from the Pacific Ocean in a seamless predawn maneuver. A combination of experience, technology and luck contributed to a speedy rescue that separates the Raindancer from similar catastrophes .

“There was never really much fear that we were in danger,” Rodriguez said. “Everything was in control as much as it could be for a boat sinking.”

It wasn’t lost on Rodriguez that the story that inspired Herman Melville happened in the same region. The ship Essex was also heading west from the Galápagos when it was rammed by a sperm whale in 1820, leaving the captain and some crew to endure for roughly three months and to resort to cannibalism before being rescued.

Coast Guard saves overboard cruise passenger in ‘Thanksgiving miracle’

There have been about 1,200 reports of whales and boats colliding since a worldwide database launched in 2007, said Kate Wilson, a spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission. Collisions that cause significant damage are rare, the U.S. Coast Guard said, noting that the last rescue attributed to damage from a whale was the sinking of a 40-foot J-Boat in 2009 off Baja California, with that crew rescued by Coast Guard helicopter.

Alana Litz was the first to see what she now thinks was a Bryde’s whale as long as the boat. “I saw a massive whale off the port aft side with its side fin up in the air,” Litz said.

Rodriguez looked to see it bleeding from the upper third of its body as it slipped below the water.

Bianca Brateanu was below cooking and got thrown in the collision. She rushed up to the deck while looking to the starboard and saw a whale with a small dorsal fin 30 to 40 feet off that side, leading the group to wonder whether at least two whales were present.

Within five seconds of impact, an alarm went off indicating the bottom of the boat was filling with water, and Rodriguez could see it rushing in from the stern.

Water was already above the floor within minutes. Rodriguez made a mayday call on the VHF radio and set off the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). The distress signal was picked up by officials in Peru, who alerted the U.S. Coast Guard District 11 in Alameda, Calif., which is in charge of U.S. vessels in the Pacific.

The crew launched the inflatable life raft, as well as the dinghy, then realized they needed to drop the sails, so that line attaching the life raft didn’t snap as it got dragged behind the still-moving Raindancer.

Rodriguez grabbed his snorkel gear and a tarp and jumped into the water to see whether he could plug the holes, but it was futile. The area near the propeller shaft was badly punched in, he said.

Meanwhile, the others had gathered safety equipment, emergency gear and food. In addition to bottled water, they filled “water bottles, tea kettles and pots” before the salt water rose above the sink, Rodriguez said.

“There was no emotion,” Rodriguez recalled. “While we were getting things done, we all had that feeling, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ but it didn’t keep us from doing what we needed to do and prepare ourselves to abandon ship.”

Rodriguez and Simon Fischer handed the items down to the women in the dinghy, but in the turmoil, they left a bag with their passports behind. They stepped into the water themselves just as the deck went under.

Rodriguez swam to the life raft, climbed in and looked back to see the last 10 feet of the mast sinking “at an unbelievable speed,” he said. As the Raindancer slipped away, he pulled a Leatherman from his pocket and cut the line that tethered the life raft to the boat after Litz noticed it was being pulled taut.

They escaped with enough water for about a week and with a device for catching rain, Rodriguez said. They had roughly three weeks worth of food, and a fishing pole.

The Raindancer “was well-equipped with safety equipment and multiple communication devices and had a trained crew to handle this open-ocean emergency until a rescue vessel arrived,” said Douglas Samp, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific area search and rescue program manager. He cautioned that new technology should not replace the use of an EPIRB, which has its own batteries.

Indeed, the one issue the crew faced was battery power. Their Iridium Go, a satellite WiFi hotspot, was charged to only 32 percent (dropping to 18 percent before the rescue). The phone that pairs with it was at 40 percent, and the external power bank was at 25 percent.

Rodriguez sent his first message to Joyce, who was sailing a boat on the same route about 180 miles behind. His second was to his brother, Roger, in Miami. He repeated most of what he had messaged to Joyce, adding: “Tell mom it’s going to be okay.”

Rodriguez’s confidence was earned. A 31-year-old from Tavernier, Fla., he had spent about 10 years working as a professional yacht captain, mate and engineer. He bought the Raindancer in 2021 and lived on her, putting sweat equity into getting the boat, built in 1976, ready for his dream trip.

Both he and Brateanu, 25, from Newcastle, England, have mariner survival training. Litz, 32, from Comox, British Columbia, was formerly a firefighter in the Canadian military. Fischer, 25, of Marsberg, Germany, had the least experience, but “is a very levelheaded guy,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez gave detailed information on their location and asked his brother to send a message via WhatsApp to Joyce, who has a Starlink internet connection that he checks more frequently than his Iridium Go. Because of his low battery, he told his brother that he was turning the unit off and would check it in two hours.

Rodriguez also activated a Globalstar SPOT tracker, which transmitted the position of the life raft every few minutes, and he broadcast a mayday call every hour using his VHF radio.

When he turned the Iridium Go back on at the scheduled time, there was a reply from Joyce: “We got you bud.”

As luck would have it, the Raindancer was sailing the same route as about two dozen boats participating in a round-the-world yachting rally called the World ARC. BoatWatch, a network of amateur radio operators that searches for people lost at sea, was also notified. And the urgent broadcast issued by the Coast Guard was answered by a commercial ship, Dong-A Maia, which said it was 90 miles to the south of Raindancer and was changing course.

“We have a bunch of boats coming. We got you brother,” Joyce typed.

“Can’t wait to see you guys,” Rodriguez replied.

Joyce told Rodriguez that the closest boat was “one day maximum.”

In fact, the closest boat was a 45-foot catamaran not in the rally. The Rolling Stones was only about 35 miles away. The captain, Geoff Stone, 42, of Muskego, Wis., had the mayday relayed to him by a friend sailing about 500 miles away. He communicated with Joyce via WhatsApp and with the Peruvian coast guard using a satellite phone to say they were heading to the last known coordinates.

In the nine hours it took to reach the life raft, Stone told The Post, he and the other three men on his boat were apprehensive about how the rescue was going to work.

“The seas weren’t terrible, but we’ve never done a search and rescue,” he said. He wasn’t sure whether they would be able to find the life raft without traveling back and forth.

He was surprised when Fischer spotted the Rolling Stones’ lights from about five miles away and made contact on the VHF radio.

Once it got closer, Rodriguez set off a parachute flare, then activated a personal beacon that transmits both GPS location and AIS (Automatic Identification System) to assist in the approach. Although the 820-foot Dong-A Maia, a Panamanian-flagged tanker, was standing by, it made more sense to be rescued by the smaller ship.

To board the Rolling Stones, the crew from the Raindancer transferred to the dinghy with a few essentials, then detached the life raft so it wouldn’t get caught in the boat’s propeller.

“We were 30 or 40 feet away when we started to make out each other’s figures. There was dead silence,” Rodriguez said. “They were curious what kind of emotional state we were in. We were curious who they were.”

“I yelled out howdy” to break the ice, he explained.

One by one, they jumped onto the transom. “All of a sudden, us four were sitting in this new boat with four strangers,” Rodriguez said.

The hungry sailors were given fresh bread, then were offered showers. The Rolling Stones crew gave their guests toothbrushes, deodorant and clothes. None even had shoes.

Rodriguez said he had tried not to think about losing his boat while the crisis was at hand. But, the first morning he woke up on Rolling Stones, it hit him. Not only had he lost his home and belongings, but he also felt as if he’d lost “a good friend.”

“I’ve worked so hard to be here, and have been dreaming of making landfall at the Bay of Virgins in the Marquesas on my own boat for about 10 years. And 1,000 nautical miles short, my boat sinks,” Rodriguez said.

The Rolling Stones is expected to arrive in French Polynesia on Wednesday, and Rodriguez is glad that he’s onboard.

“I feel very lucky and grateful that we were rescued so quickly,” he said. “We were in the right place at the right time to go down.”

Karen Schwartz is a writer based in Fort Collins, Colo. Follow her on Twitter @WanderWomanIsMe .

A previous version of this article misstated the size of the J-boat that sank in 2009. It was 40 feet.

More travel news

How we travel now: More people are taking booze-free trips — and airlines and hotels are taking note. Some couples are ditching the traditional honeymoon for a “buddymoon” with their pals. Interested? Here are the best tools for making a group trip work.

Bad behavior: Entitled tourists are running amok, defacing the Colosseum , getting rowdy in Bali and messing with wild animals in national parks. Some destinations are fighting back with public awareness campaigns — or just by telling out-of-control visitors to stay away .

Safety concerns: A door blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet, leaving passengers traumatized — but without serious injuries. The ordeal led to widespread flight cancellations after the jet was grounded, and some travelers have taken steps to avoid the plane in the future. The incident has also sparked a fresh discussion about whether it’s safe to fly with a baby on your lap .

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Their Boat Hit a Whale and Sank. The Internet Saved Their Lives.

After the collision in the Pacific Ocean this month, Rick Rodriguez and three other sailors were rescued by a fellow boater, with an assist from a satellite internet signal.

By Mike Ives

When Rick Rodriguez’s sailboat collided with a whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean earlier this month, it sank within about 15 minutes. But not before he and his three fellow mariners had escaped with essential supplies and cutting-edge communications gear.

One was a pocket-size satellite device that allowed Mr. Rodriguez to call his brother, who was thousands of miles away on land, from a life raft. That call would set in motion a successful rescue effort by other sailors in the area who had satellite internet access on their boats.

“Technology saved our lives,” Mr. Rodriguez later wrote in an account that he typed on his iPhone from the sailboat that had rescued him and his crew.

People involved in the roughly nine-hour rescue say it illustrates how newer satellite technologies, especially Starlink internet systems , operated by the rocket company SpaceX since 2019 , have dramatically improved emergency communication options for sailors stranded at sea — and the people trying to find them.

“All sailors want to help out,” said Tommy Joyce, a friend of Mr. Rodriguez who helped organize the rescue effort from his own sailboat. “But this just makes it so much easier to coordinate and help boaters in distress.”

Starlink’s service gives vessels access to satellite signals that reach oceans and seas around the globe, according to the company. The fee-based connection allows sailors to reach other vessels on their own, instead of relying solely on sending distress signals to government-rescue agencies that use older, satellite-based communication technologies.

But the rapid rescue would not have been possible without the battery-powered satellite device that Mr. Rodriguez used to call his brother. Such devices have only been used by recreational sailors for about a decade, according to the United States Coast Guard. This one’s manufacturer, Iridium, said in a statement that the device is “incredibly popular with the sailing community.”

“The recent adoption of more capable satellite systems now means sailors can broadcast distress to a closed or public chat group, sometimes online, and get an instant response,” said Paul Tetlow, the managing director of the World Cruising Club, a sailing organization whose members participated in the rescue .

A sinking feeling

Whales don’t normally hit boats. In a famous exception, one rammed the whaling vessel Essex as it crisscrossed the Pacific Ocean in 1820, an accident that was among the inspirations for Herman Melville’s 1851 novel “ Moby Dick .”

In Mr. Rodriguez’s case, a whale interrupted a three-week voyage by his 44-foot sailboat, Raindancer , from the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador to French Polynesia. At the time of the impact on March 13, the boat was cruising at about seven miles per hour and its crew was busy eating homemade pizza.

Mr. Rodriguez would later write that making contact with the whale — just as he dipped a slice into ranch dressing — felt like hitting a concrete wall.

Even as the boat sank, “I felt like it was just a scene out of a movie," Alana Litz, a friend of Mr. Rodriguez and one of the sailors on Raindancer, told NBC’s “Today” program last week. The story of the rescue had been reported earlier by The Washington Post .

Raindancer’s hull was reinforced to withstand an impact with something as large and heavy as a cargo container. But the collision created multiple cracks near the stern, Mr. Rodriguez later wrote , and water rose to the floorboards within about 30 seconds.

Minutes later, he and his friends had all escaped from the boat with food, water and other essential supplies. When he looked back, he saw the last 10 feet of the mast sinking quickly. As a line that had been tying the raft to the boat started to come under tension, he cut it with a knife.

That left the Raindancer crew floating in the open ocean, about 2,400 miles west of Lima, Peru, and 1,800 miles southeast of Tahiti.

“The sun began to set and soon it was pitch dark,” Mr. Rodriguez, who was not available for an interview, wrote in an account of the journey that he shared with other sailors. “And we were floating right smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a dinghy and a life raft. Hopeful that we would be rescued soon.”

‘Not a drill’

Before Raindancer sank, Mr. Rodriguez activated a satellite radio beacon that instantly sent a distress alert to coast guard authorities in Peru, the country with search and rescue authority over that part of the Pacific, and the United States, where his boat was registered.

In 2009, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescued a sailboat crew whose vessel had collided with a whale and sank about 70 miles off the coast of Mexico. But Raindancer’s remote location made a rescue like that one impossible. So in the hour after it sank, U.S. Coast Guard officials used decades-old satellite communications technology to contact commercial vessels near the site of the accident.

One vessel responded to say that it was about 10 hours away and willing to divert. But, in the end, that was not necessary because Mr. Rodriguez’s satellite phone call to his brother Roger had already set a separate, successful rescue effort in motion.

Mr. Rodriguez’s brother contacted Mr. Joyce, whose own boat, Southern Cross, had left the Galápagos around the same time and was about 200 miles behind Raindancer when it sank. Because Southern Cross had a Starlink internet connection, it became a hub for a rescue effort that Mr. Joyce, 40, coordinated with other boats using WhatsApp, Facebook and several smartphone apps that track wind speed, tides and boat positions.

“Not a drill,” Mr. Joyce, who works in the biotech industry, often from his boat, wrote on WhatsApp to other sailors who were in the area. “We are in the Pacific headed that direction but there are closer vessels.”

After a flurry of communication, several boats began sailing as quickly as possible toward Raindancer’s last known coordinates.

SpaceX did not respond to an inquiry about the system’s coverage in the Pacific. But Douglas Samp, who oversees the Coast Guard’s search and rescue operations in the Pacific, said in a phone interview that vessels only began using Starlink internet service in the open ocean this year.

Mr. Joyce said that satellite internet had been key to finding boats that were close to the stranded crew.

“They were all using Starlink,” he said, speaking in a video interview from his boat as it sailed to Tahiti. “Can you imagine if we didn’t have access?”

Of course, there was one sailboat captain without a Starlink signal during the rescue: Mr. Rodriguez. After night fell over the Pacific, he and his fellow sailors resorted to the ancient method of sitting in a life raft and hoping for the best.

In the darkness, the wind picked up and flying fish jumped into their dinghy, according to Mr. Rodriguez’s account. Every hour or so, they placed a mayday call on a hand-held radio, hoping that a ship might happen to pass within its range.

None did. But after a few more hours of anxious waiting, they saw the lights of a catamaran and heard the voice of its American captain crackling over their radio. That is when they screamed in relief.

Mike Ives is a general assignment reporter. More about Mike Ives

latest in US News

Would the '86 Mets triumph over '98 Yanks in Super Series? Doc...

GOP Senate would refuse to fill Supreme Court vacancies in second...

Before 'Mean Girls' and 'Spamalot,' this was actor Jonathan...

This Batmobile-like electric car can go 256 mph — and costs...

What the flock? Staten Island's angry turkeys get their own comic...

Crypto hotshot raped wife, withheld food and forced her to groom...

Thriving how-to squatter internet forums reveal home takeover...

'I want a fighter': Donald Trump Jr. lobbying dad to pick one of...

4 pals spend 10 hours adrift in pacific ocean after whale sinks their boat.

• View Author Archive
• Email the Author
• Follow on Twitter
• Get author RSS feed

Contact The Author

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

A giant whale plunged a group of sailors into a scene straight out of “Moby-Dick” when it sank their boat in the Pacific Ocean — where they waited in a life raft for 10 hours before they were rescued.

Rick Rodriguez, 31, of Tavernier, Florida, and three pals set off from the Galápagos Islands on his 44-foot sailboat Raindancer for a three-week, 3,500-mile journey to French Polynesia, the Washington Post reported .

But on March 13, less than two weeks into the trip, things went horribly wrong.

Rodriguez, a native of Newcastle, England, and the others were enjoying a lunch of vegetarian pizza when they heard a loud noise about 1:30 p.m.

“The second pizza had just come out of the oven, and I was dipping a slice into some ranch dressing,” Rodriguez told the paper over a satellite phone. “The back half of the boat lifted violently upward and to starboard.”

The group quickly gathered essential supplies, including water and food – then scrambled into a life raft and dinghy before the boat sank in about 15 minutes.

Rodriguez made a mayday and set off the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, whose signal was picked up by officials in Peru, who alerted the US Coast Guard in California.

Fortunately, the group also had an Iridium Go satellite WiFi hotspot and a phone, though they were only partially charged and an external battery pack was only at 25 percent, the Washington Post said.

“Tommy this is no joke,” Rodriguez messaged his friend Tommy Joyce, who was sailing the same route but was some 180 miles behind.

“We hit a whale and the ship went down. Tell as many boats as you can. Battery is dangerously low,” he typed.

Rodriguez sent a similar message to his brother Roger in Miami.

“Tell mom it’s going to be OK,” he added confidently.

When he checked the Iridium Go later, he saw Joyce’s reassuring message: “We got you bud. We have a bunch of boats coming.”

Rodriguez replied: “Can’t wait to see you guys.”

The Raindancer happened to be sailing the same route as about two dozen other vessels taking part in a yachting rally called the World ARC.

An alert sent by the Coast Guard was picked up by the Dong-A Maia, a Panamanian-flagged tanker sailing 90 miles to the south of Raindancer. It quickly changed course.

The sailors, who were thrown by the large impact, all noticed that a whale had rammed their boat.

“I saw a massive whale off the port aft side with its side fin up in the air,” Alana Litz, 32, a former firefighter in the Canadian military, told the news outlet.

She said she believes it was a Bryde’s whale that was about as long as the vessel.

Rodriguez noticed that it was bleeding as it slipped below the surface.

Bianca Brateanu, a 25-year-old from Newcastle, had been cooking below at the time of the collision and rushed up to see a whale at starboard, leading the group to wonder if at least two whales were present.

Also onboard was Simon Fischer, 25, of Marsberg, Germany, who had the least experience but “is a very levelheaded guy,” Rodriguez told the Washington Post.

The friends abandoned the Raindancer with enough water for about a week and roughly three weeks’ worth of food. They also had a fishing pole and a device for collecting rain.

But the rescue came after about 10 hours.

The Rolling Stones, a 45-foot catamaran captained by Wisconsin native Geoff Stone, was only about 35 miles away and he received a relayed mayday call.

Stone communicated with Joyce and with Peruvian authorities via WhatsApp to say he was heading to the last known location, which he reached a few hours later.

“The seas weren’t terrible but we’ve never done a search and rescue,” he told the Washington Post, adding that Fischer spotted his lights from about five miles away.

Rodriguez set off a flare and activated a beacon to assist in the final approach.

Although the Dong-A Maia also was nearby, the friends decided to board The Rolling Stones.

“We were 30 or 40 feet away when we started to make out each other’s figures. There was dead silence,” Rodriguez said.

“They were curious what kind of emotional state we were in. We were curious who they were. I yelled out ‘howdy” to break the ice,” he told the paper.

“All of a sudden us four were sitting in this new boat with four strangers,” Rodriguez added.

He told the outlet that “there was never really much fear that we were in danger. Everything was in control as much as it could be for a boat sinking.”

It also wasn’t lost on him that the story that inspired Herman Melville to write the 1851 novel happened in the same area.

The ship Essex also was sailing west from the Galápagos in 1820 when it was rammed by a sperm whale, leaving the captain and some crew members to spend about three months adrift as they resorted to cannibalism before being rescued.

Fortunately, Rodriguez and his friends didn’t have to face such an unsavory outcome.

“I feel very lucky, and grateful, that we were rescued so quickly,” he told the paper. “We were in the right place at the right time to go down.”

The Rolling Stones was expected to arrive in French Polynesia on Wednesday.

Share this article:

Advertisement

• Travel Updates

Sources reveal new details around whale which killed five on board boat

New details have emerged around the terrifying moment a whale crashed down onto a boat, killing five adults on board.

‘Prison food’: Qantas meal confuses

‘Who designed this?’: Aussie’s train fury

‘Are you a spy?’: Shocking racist rant

A sperm whale is understood to have flipped a boat at Goose Bay, claiming the lives of five photographers near Kaikōura in New Zealand’s South Island.

The fatal accident happened about 10am on Saturday when a whale breached directly underneath the boat , capsizing the charter vessel, the NZ Herald has been told.

Six people were thrown overboard, including the skipper. Five others were trapped underneath the upturned hull and didn’t survive.

No one who was on the boat at the time of the tragedy could be reached for comment.

According to their website, the 10 keen photographers from the Nature Photography Society had planned the three-day field trip to Kaikōura for months.

Everyone made their way to the popular seaside village on Friday, September 9 with a desire to photograph the landscapes, seascapes and birdlife of Kaikōura.

Stream your news live & on demand with Flash. From CNN International, Al Jazeera, Sky News, BBC World, CNBC & more. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

The trip coincided with the Kaikōura 48-hour photography exhibition, and they could enter the competition with photos they had taken in August.

One of the highlights of the weekend was a three-hour “birding trip” with Fish Kaikōura Charters at a cost of $80 per head.

The three-hour charter would take the group out on the water to capture photos of the snow-capped Kaikōura landscape in the background and the birdlife along the coast.

Whale watching wasn’t on the agenda.

Safety briefing held, life-jackets were worn

Saturday was a perfect day boating with sunny skies and the promise of a great day for capturing stunning photos.

The Herald understands from a close source there was a safety briefing and the group was wearing life jackets – a standard procedure for fishing charters.

The group set out at 9am in the 8.5m aluminium boat, leaving South Bay at Kaikōura and heading down the coastline to Goose Bay near the well-known twin road tunnels on State Highway 1.

The normally rough seas were unusually flat and calm, almost glassy, with no real swell and not a breath of wind.

After an hour, the charter headed north towards Barneys Rock, a popular spot for photographers and tourists.

Whale came up directly beneath the boat

Barneys Rock is less than 100m from shore and just north of the double tunnels.

It is often covered with birds and is known for seals.

As the charter boat motored slowly north it appears it was on the edge of the famous deep trench that is home to whales.

The canyon quickly drops away to a depth of 500 metres and as far down as 3km.

The boat was about 500m from shore when, the Herald understands, a whale came up underneath the boat.

The skipper and passengers were tossed into the water.

A Goose Bay local says they saw the whale within “two or three hundred yards” from the boat.

Kevin Anderson said he saw a whale heading north, diving under the water near the vessel.

The retiree said nothing else was near the vessel at the time and the sea was dead calm.

Survivors swam for the boat

The survivors would have been in the water fully clothed and in shock.

They would have hung onto the side of the upturned boat and pulled themselves up on top of the aluminium hull.

Six people sat on the boat waiting to be rescued, five passengers and the skipper. Five people were missing.

Mayday call and rescue operation

As they waited to be rescued it appears that the boat drifted towards the shore on the incoming tide and gentle swells.

A mayday call was overheard on maritime radio and Kaikōura helicopter pilot Daniel Stevenson flew to the scene in four minutes.

A nearby boat picked up the five passengers off the capsized vessel and took them to South Bay, the Kaikōura marina less than 20 minutes away.

The Kaikōura Coastguard was dispatched and attempts were made to get under the boat to try and save those still in the water.

Mr Stevenson picked up a diver from Kaikoura and flew him to the scene. He jumped from the helicopter into the water.

He managed to get under the upturned boat but could not save those trapped below.

Four of five victims so far identified

Christchurch’s Peter Charles Hockley is believed to have been in the vessel’s cabin alongside the four other victims when the boat capsized. His daughter said he was an avid photographer and an “amazing dad”.

Diana Stewart, 68, was a receptionist at Dental Place NZ, which wrote on Facebook that they were “deeply saddened” to hear about her death.

“Ever kind and caring, Diana was an expert photographer with a passion for nature, and will be sadly missed by all who knew her. Our deepest condolences to her family.”

Susan Cade was a much-loved member of the Wellington community, remembered by friends as a keen kayaker, photographer and dancer.

Cade’s close friend Cathye Haddock also died when the 8.5m charter vessel capsized.

Haddock, who worked at the Ministry of Education and loved the outdoors, had recently joined the photography society, her husband Peter Simpson said.

‘We’re grieving with you and we’re sorry’

The couple who operate the fishing charter business said it was an unprecedented tragedy.

Fish Kaikōura owners Mark and Sharlene Ealam said their thoughts and prayers were with the families and friends of the dead.

They said they were in shock and requested privacy during what they described as a “terrible time”.

Three investigations under way

More Coverage

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission is investigating, in conjunction with Maritime New Zealand and the police.

The commission has started to contact witnesses and wants to hear from anyone who saw or recorded what happened.

This article originally appeared on the NZ Herald and was reproduced with permission

A Qantas passenger who uploaded a photo of their meal has left online users scratching their heads over what exactly it is.

A commuter has slammed a major “flaw” at a Sydney train station, calling out the “dumb” design.

A tourist has shared the moment he was subjected to a spray of racist abuse while travelling through Western Australia.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• March Madness
• AP Top 25 Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

5 dead after New Zealand boat flips in possible whale strike

A helicopter flies overs an upturned boat with a survivor sitting on the hull off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. A boat in New Zealand collided with a whale and capsized. (AP Photo)

An aerial view shows two rescue boats alongside a capsized boat Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, Kaikoura, New Zealand. Five people in New Zealand died Saturday after the small charter boat they were aboard capsized, authorities say, in what may have been a collision with a whale. Another six people aboard the boat were rescued. (TVNZ via AP)

A helicopter and a rescue boat search for survivors off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. A boat in New Zealand collided with a whale and capsized. (AP Photo)

An aerial view shows a rescue boat approaching a capsized boat Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, Kaikoura, New Zealand. Five people in New Zealand died Saturday after the small charter boat they were aboard capsized, authorities say, in what may have been a collision with a whale. Another six people aboard the boat were rescued. (TVNZ via AP)

In this image taken from video, survivors cling to the upturned hull of a boat that capsized off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. The boat had collided with a whale and capsized. (AP Photo)

• Copy Link copied

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Five people died Saturday in New Zealand after the small charter boat they were aboard capsized, authorities say, in what may have been a collision with a whale. Another six people aboard the boat were rescued.

Police said the 8.5-meter (28-foot) boat overturned near the South Island town of Kaikōura. Police said they were continuing to investigate the cause of the accident.

Kaikōura Police Sergeant Matt Boyce described it as a devastating and unprecedented event.

“Our thoughts are with everyone involved, including the victims and their families, their local communities, and emergency services personnel,” Boyce said.

He said police divers had recovered the bodies of all those who had died. He said all six survivors were assessed to be in stable condition at a local health center, with one transferred to a hospital in the city of Christchurch as a precaution.

Kaikōura Mayor Craig Mackle told The Associated Press that the water was dead calm at the time of the accident and the assumption was that a whale had surfaced from beneath the boat.

He said there were some sperm whales in the area and also some humpback whales traveling through.

He said locals had helped with the rescue efforts throughout the day but the mood in the town was “somber” because the water was so cold and they feared for the outcome of anybody who had fallen overboard.

Mackle said he’d thought in the past about the possibility of a boat and whale colliding, given the number of whales that frequent the region.

“It always plays on your mind that it could happen,” he said, adding that he hadn’t heard about any previous such accidents.

Mackle said the boat was a charter vessel typically used for fishing excursions. News agency Stuff reported the passengers belonged to a bird enthusiasts’ group.

Police said they were still notifying the relatives of those who died, and couldn’t yet publicly name the victims.

Vanessa Chapman told Stuff she and a group of friends had watched the rescue efforts unfold from Goose Bay, near Kaikōura. She said that when she arrived at a lookout spot, she could see a person sitting atop an overturned boat waving their arms.

She said two rescue helicopters and a third local helicopter were circling before two divers jumped out. She told Stuff that the person atop the boat was rescued and a second person appeared to have been pulled from the water.

Kaikōura is a popular whale-watching destination. The seafloor drops away precipitously from the coast, making for deep waters close to the shore. A number of businesses offer boat trips or helicopter rides so tourists can see whales, dolphins and other sea creatures up close.

Compliance agency Maritime New Zealand said it sent two investigators to the scene and would be conducting a thorough investigation once recovery operations had concluded.

Principal Investigator Tracy Phillips said the agency “offers its heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the people who have died.”

A 'massive' whale destroyed a sailboat in the middle of the Pacific, leaving 4 friends stranded for 10 hours

• Rick Rodriguez and his friends went on a boat journey from the Galapagos to French Polynesia.
• About two weeks into the trip, the group found themselves stranded for 10 hours in the middle of the Pacific. 
• Their sailboat had been struck by a whale and sunk, The Washington Post  reported. 

One of the first things Rick Rodriguez did after his boat started to sink was text his friend. "Tommy this isn't a joke," he wrote . "We hit a whale and the ship went down."

He really wasn't joking.

Rodriguez and three of his friends were on a three week sailing journey. They had started near the Galapagos Islands and were on their way to French Polynesia. Just shy of two weeks into their journey, however, they found themselves in a lifeboat, floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, The Washington Post reported.

They drifted for 10 hours before a civilian ship finally rescued them, Sail World Cruising, an online sailing publication, reported.

Rodriguez told The Post that him and his friends were eating pizza at about 1:30 p.m. on March 13 when they heard a loud bang. Some 15 minutes later, the boat sank. The friends quickly collected essential supplies like water, food, and documents, and then scrambled into the lifeboat, according to Sail World Cruising. 

Rodriguez, who fortunately still had some charge left on a portable wifi device, was able to reach out for help. "Tell as many boats as you can," he told his friend, who was also a sailor. "Battery is dangerously low."

Related stories

Alana Litz, one of the friends on the sailboat, told the Post she was the first to see what she now believes was a Bryde's whale that was at least 44-feet long — the length of the boat. Bryde's are a species of great whale,  similar to blue or humpback whales. 

"I saw a massive whale off the port aft side with its side fin up in the air," Litz told the Post.

Rodriguez said he saw it bleeding as it went back into the water.

Fortunately for the stranded crew, there were about two dozen ships sailing in the same direction — part of a yacht race known as World ARC, according to Sail World Cruising. 

"There was never really much fear that we were in danger," Rodriguez told The Post. "Everything was in control as much as it could be for a boat sinking."

It's not uncommon for boats and whales to collide, especially with the rise in the amount of cargo and cruise boat traffic. The Los Angeles Times reported that ship strikes have actually been a danger to whales in the Pacific. 

"Anywhere you have major shipping routes and whales in the same place, you are going to see collisions," Russell Leaper, an expert with the International Whaling Commission told the Times. "Unfortunately, that's the situation in many places."

The Maritime Executive , a magazine covering maritime issues, reported last week that a sailboat had to be towed to safety in the Strait of Gibraltar after three orcas knocked into it. The magazine reported that orcas have been slamming into boats in the area for years. 

A spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission told the Post that since 2007, there have been 1,200 reports of boats and whales colliding. But according to the US Coast Guard it's rare for collisions to cause significant damage. 

• Main content

Man killed, one hospitalised after whale hits boat off Australia

Police say whale breaching may have caused boat to flip and throw two occupants into the water off Sydney.

One man died and another was hospitalised in Australia after a whale hit and flipped their small boat during a fishing trip, authorities said.

The two men were thrown from the boat when it was hit at about 6am local time on Saturday (20:00 GMT on Friday) in the waters off La Perouse, about 14km (nine miles) southeast of Sydney.

Keep reading

‘orca uprising’: why are orca whales targeting boats, photos: australia rescuers ‘optimistic’ for survival of stranded whales, ancient whale found in peru may be the heaviest animal ever, photos: humpback whales draw visitors to colombia’s coast.

People on a second boat raised the alarm after spotting a 4.8-metre vessel unoccupied in the water, police said.

The 53-year-old skipper was pulled from the water nearby, treated by paramedics and taken to hospital, where he was in a stable condition, according to authorities. A second man, aged 61, was unconscious and died at the scene.

The boat “was likely to have struck or been impacted by a whale breaching, causing the boat to tilt, ejecting both men”, police said in a statement.

Water Police Acting Superintendent Siobhan Munro described the collision as a “tragic accident” and told how the skipper of the boat had tried to hold his companion “as close as he could” in an effort to save him.

According to Australia’s ABC national broadcaster, Munro said the men could have been in the water for 45 minutes before they were rescued.

A man has died and another has been taken to hospital after an early morning fatal collision with a whale at Sydney's Botany Bay. https://t.co/4G7ybNq7fd — ABC News (@abcnews) September 29, 2023

Though Australia has an extensive coastline and its waters host 10 large and 20 smaller species of whales, human deaths caused by whales are rare.

Humpback and southern right whales travel north to warmer breeding grounds during Australia’s winter months, returning southwards between September and November.

“Right now there are lots of whales out there and there are lots of examples of whales breaching next to boats,” Munro said.

New South Wales Maritime executive director Mark Hutchings said that people on the water needed to stay 100 metres away from an adult whale , and 300 metres if the whale is accompanying a calf.

“Whales aren’t there to harm anyone, but those interactions can happen,” Hutchings told the ABC.

The accident comes less than two weeks after a four-metre humpback whale was struck in the head by a boat propeller off the coast of Western Australia.

In June, eight Danish people were rescued when their sailboat capsized in the Pacific Ocean after a collision with one or two whales.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Man dies after suspected whale collision capsizes boat in Sydney

NSW water police respond after reports of the incident off Cape Banks at La Perouse

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast

One man has died and another is in a stable condition in hospital after a boat capsized after it was reportedly struck by a whale in Sydney .

NSW water police responded to reports that two people were in the water off Cape Banks at La Perouse at about 6am on Saturday morning , after their unoccupied boat was found circling in the waters.

A 61-year-old man was unconscious when he was pulled from the water. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was declared deceased, NSW police said.

A second 53-year old man was assisted by witnesses and transferred to Foreshore Road Boat Ramp where he was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Police were told the men’s 4.8m runabout vessel was likely to have struck or been impacted by a whale breaching, causing the boat to tilt, ejecting both men.

Police said the Foreshore Road boat ramp at Botany remained closed as inquiries continued.

Acting Superintendent Siobhan Munro said with more whales about than usual the incident was tragic but not unexpected.

“Right now there are lots of whales out there [so] it’s not unheard of these stories of whales breaching next to boats,” she told reporters in Sydney.

“Early reports are that a whale may have breached near the boat or on to the boat.”

Munro said a witness onboard a vessel nearby called emergency services after seeing a boat “doing laps without anybody onboard”.

The men could have been in the water for up to 45 minutes, she said.

“The skipper stayed as close as he could to the deceased and was doing all he could to keep him afloat until police arrived,” she said.

The information about the whale came from an initial interview with the skipper, who was in shock, Munro said.

Yasmin Catley, the NSW minister for police, described the incident as “a terribly tragic accident”.

“It’s very early stages and there is very little detail … at this point in time,” she said at a press conference on Saturday morning. “We understand that one person is deceased, and our deepest condolences go to that deceased person’s family.”

Jihad Dib, the NSW minister for emergency services, said “it’s an absolute freak accident but it also shows the dangers that do happen on waterways.”

Mark Hutchings, the executive director NSW Maritime, said the organisation running “operation launch” at the start of boating season to ensure that as people begin to take their boats out again after winter, they have all the safety gear necessary.

“Unfortunately we have had five fatalities quite recently. Not one of those persons that lost their lives were wearing a life jacket,” Hutchings said.

Munro said it was not confirmed whether the men in Saturday morning’s incident were wearing life jackets.

Hutchings said there were an “incredible” number of whales migrating south this year.

“National Parks would say if you are on the water you need to be 100m away from an adult whale and 300m away if that adult has a calf,” Hutchings said.

• New South Wales
• Australian police and policing

Most viewed

Whale capsizes boat leaving 1 person dead, another injured in ‘absolute freak accident’: officials

A breaching whale Saturday capsized a nearly 15-foot boat off the coast of Australia, leaving one man dead and another in the hospital, officials said. 

"At 6 this morning, police responded to reports of two people in the water," New South Wales Water Police Acting Superintendent Siobhan Munro said at a press conference of the incident that happened off the coast of La Perouse, about nine miles southeast of Sydney.

She said the two men who had been fishing were rescued, but one was unresponsive and was confirmed dead after attempts to revive him failed. 

VIDEO CAPTURES BREACHING HUMPBACK WHALE NEARLY LAND ON FISHING BOAT OFF JERSEY SHORE  

"Early reports are that a whale may have breached near the boat, or on to the boat" when it capsized , she added, saying the boat has been recovered and will undergo forensic testing "and then we’ll have more details" on what happened. 

SHARK BITES SOUTH CAROLINA SURFER'S FACE AT POPULAR FLORIDA BEACH, OFFICIALS SAY  

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The victim was 61, and the survivor is 53, who is in stable condition, officials said, according to the BBC. 

"Right now there are lots of whales out there. It’s not unheard of these stories of whales breaching next to boats," Munro added, saying that she had never seen something like this before, according to the Guardian and BBC. 

She reportedly said the men may have been in the water for up to 45 minutes before they were rescued. 

"The skipper stayed as close as he could to the deceased and was doing all he could to keep him afloat until police arrived," she added.

The New South Wales minister for emergency services, Jihad Dib, called the incident said "an absolute freak accident."

"But it also shows the dangers that do happen on waterways," he added. 

Original article source: Whale capsizes boat leaving 1 person dead, another injured in ‘absolute freak accident’: officials

Man dies in Australia after whale collides with boat

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

New Hong Kong security law comes into force amid fears for freedoms

Article 23 took effect at midnight despite criticism that it could damage the city's international financial hub credentials.

• SYDNEY, NSW
• MELBOURNE, VIC
• HOBART, TAS
• BRISBANE, QLD
• ADELAIDE, SA
• CANBERRA, ACT

Five killed after boat 'hit by whale' in New Zealand

• New Zealand

Send your stories to [email protected]

Auto news : 'Don't be this guy': Internet turns on EV driver over parking.

Top Stories

Onlookers tackle driver allegedly attempting to flee serious crash

TV's first slow-motion replay unwittingly captured a fatal blow

Bureaucratic nightmare leaves mum and son unable to return home

Queensland families left living in fear of falling tree branches

Man Dies in Australia After Whale Collides With Boat

SYDNEY (Reuters) - One man died and another was in hospital on Saturday in Australia after a whale struck and flipped their boat during a fishing expedition, authorities said.

Police said one man was pulled unconscious from Botany Bay, off the coast of Sydney, and later died, while the other was taken to hospital in a stable condition, police said.

"A whale has been involved, whoever would have thought that that would have occurred, it's terribly tragic," said New South Wales Police Minister Yasmin Catley.

State Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said it was "an absolute freak accident".

The boat "was likely to have struck or been impacted by a whale breaching, causing the boat to tilt, ejecting both men", police said in a statement. It did not identify the whale's species.

Australia's extensive coastline hosts 10 large and 20 smaller species of whales. While human deaths caused by whales in the region are rare, Australia and neighbouring New Zealand are hot spots for mass whale strandings on beaches.

Eight Danes were rescued in June when their sailboat capsized in the Pacific Ocean after a collision with one or two whales.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters .

Join the Conversation

Tags: environment , Australia

America 2024

Health News Bulletin

Stay informed on the latest news on health and COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report.

Sign in to manage your newsletters »

Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy .

You May Also Like

The 10 worst presidents.

U.S. News Staff Feb. 23, 2024

Cartoons on President Donald Trump

Feb. 1, 2017, at 1:24 p.m.

Photos: Obama Behind the Scenes

April 8, 2022

Photos: Who Supports Joe Biden?

March 11, 2020

House GOP Sees Fresh Drama

Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder March 22, 2024

The GOP’s Trump-Inspired Money Woes

Susan Milligan March 22, 2024

House Passes $1.2T Funding Package

What to Know: $1.2T Spending Bill

Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder March 21, 2024

New York Poised to Seize Trump Holdings

Lauren Camera March 21, 2024

Who Could Be Trump’s VP?

Watch CBS News

New clue points to why whale watching boat suddenly capsized

October 27, 2015 / 10:23 PM EDT / CBS/AP

TOFINO, British Columbia -- Most of the passengers on a whale watching boat carrying 27 people that capsized off Vancouver Island were on the left side of the top deck when a wave struck the boat's right side, causing the vessel to tilt and roll over, investigators said Tuesday.

Five British nationals were killed , and the search continued for a missing Australian man. Twenty-one people were rescued after the Leviathan II capsized Sunday afternoon.

Local fisherman Lance Desilets arrived on the scene as last-known survivors were ferried to shore, CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reported.

"The Coast Guard asked us to circle around the area to see if we could find any more survivors or bodies floating in the water," Desilets said.

Desilets said the boat may have been in a rocky area that's home to a sea lion colony, Blackstone reported.

Marc Andre Poisson, Director of Marine Investigations for Canada's Transportation Safety Board, said Tuesday that having so many people on the left side of the boat "raised the center of gravity."

"We know that most passengers were on the top deck on the port side, that's the left side of the vessel. This would have raised the center of gravity, affecting the vessel's stability," Poisson said at a news conference in Tofino.

"We also know that the sea conditions were such that a wave approached from the starboard quarter, that's the right of the vessel. We know that the vessel broached and then capsized."

He said investigators have now interviewed the three crew members and some of the passengers. One life raft deployed and was used, he said. The full investigation is expected to take months.

The Leviathan II was on a whale watching cruise when it sank.

The British Columbia Coroners Service identified the five victims, two of whom were British nationals living in Canada. They are David Thomas, 50, and his 18-year-old son Stephen, from Swindon in southern England; Katie Taylor, 29, of Whistler, British Columbia; Nigel Francis Hooker, 63, of Southampton, England, and Jack Slater, 76, of Toronto.

The Down Syndrome Association UK said in a statement that David Thomas was a "huge supporter" of the organization and "one of the driving forces behind the Swindon Down's Syndrome Group, where he was a trustee."

Stephen Thomas, who had Down Syndrome, "was a very talented young man and a gifted photographer," the association said in a statement.

"His love of photography started when he was eight years old. We were all delighted when Stephen's beautiful image Moraine Lake won the national My Perspective photographic competition last year," the association said.

"All of our thoughts and condolences are with the Thomas family at this terrible time," the group added.

Microsoft UK said David Thomas was an employee. "Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with their family, friends and David's colleagues and we will be doing everything we can to support them," the company said.

David Thomas' wife, Julie, was rescued and is hospitalized with minor injuries.

Michele Slater Brown, of Milton, Ontario, said she was notified about her father's death "in the wee hours this morning," and called him "larger than life, a charmer, handsome, entrepreneur, engineer in the navy ... and a lovely dad."

Coroner Matt Brown said a preliminary investigation suggests those who died were on the top part of the boat and that they weren't wearing life-jackets because it's not required in the type of vessel they were in.

Investigators will review the weather, wreckage and the maintenance history of the 65-foot boat to determine why it capsized, said Poisson.

A senior employee of Jamie's Whaling Station, the company operating the boat, said the vessel sank so quickly the crew didn't have time to issue a mayday call. The crew shot flares from the water which attracted the attention of local aboriginal fishermen who rushed to help rescue people, said Corene Inouye, the company's director of operations.

The boat capsized about eight nautical miles off Tofino, a popular destination for whale watchers that is at the very tip of a peninsula some 200 miles northwest of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia.

Fisherman Clarence Smith said he was reeling his lines for halibut when his friend saw a flare shoot in the sky. They raced to the scene in their small boat, and saw people in life rafts, in the water, and on rocks. They first helped a man who was clinging to the side of the boat, taking eight minutes to get him on board. He was unresponsive, and tangled in a line.

Then they rescued two women who were clinging to each other, and finally got 10 people on the life raft onto their boat. Among those they picked up were a pregnant woman and a woman with a broken leg.

"The lady was saying that a wave just capsized them. That's why there weren't any communications on the radio, no mayday," Smith said.

Jamie Bray, the owner of Jamie's Whaling Station, said the boat sank in an area it goes to every day. He said he is cooperating with investigators to determine what caused the boat to flip over. He said the boat has operated for 20 years "with an absolutely perfect safety record."

One of the company's boats also had a fatal accident in 1998. The vessel capsized during an excursion, leaving an operator and a passenger dead. Bray said that vessel was struck by a rogue wave but said the latest incident involved a much larger boat.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Tuesday confirmed that an Australian man was missing. Australian Associated Press reported that the 27 year-old Sydney man's family said he was on the boat with his girlfriend and her family when it sank. His girlfriend's father was among the dead, AAP said.

More from CBS News

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Environment Story Of The Day NPR hide caption

Environment

• LISTEN & FOLLOW

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

The U.S. Coast Guard's new system aims to reduce the number of whales hit by vessels

Bellamy Pailthorp

The U.S. Coast Guard has developed a new system to try to reduce the number whales hit by vessels. It's trying it out in the waters in and around Seattle.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

In Washington state, the U.S. Coast Guard is testing a system to alert ships about whale sightings in Puget Sound and nearby waters. The agency wants to better protect marine mammals from boat strikes in the busy waterways around Seattle. Bellamy Pailthorp of member station KNKX has our story.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: The tug Sun Spirit ahead of you with a barge...

BELLAMY PAILTHORP, BYLINE: In the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Captain Rodney Myers stands on the bridge of the ALS Luna. He's a Puget Sound pilot. By state law, local pilots have to guide commercial ships that come from abroad. Today, it's a massive container ship piled high with goods from China, headed for a berth at the Port of Seattle.

RODNEY MYERS: Seattle traffic...

PAILTHORP: He directs a mate at the wheel and a lookout who helps scan for traffic and also wildlife.

MYERS: I see a whale, which - that's what our lookout is for. If I see a fin or whatever, I'll alter course to keep well clear.

PAILTHORP: But Captain Myers says those fins can be really hard to see, so he relies on the Coast Guard. And with a ship this huge, about the size of a 10-story apartment building, it can take half an hour to turn safely.

MYERS: If they can tell me that there's a whale at, say, Port Townsend, I can prepare for that early.

PAILTHORP: For years now, the maritime community has been using multiple crowdsourced apps to see where whales and orcas are and try to avoid them. But they haven't worked very well. Under pressure from environmentalists and a congressional mandate, the Coast Guard is stepping up to help improve one of the most used whale report apps, called WRAS. The new system will combine sightings reports with information from underwater listening devices, creating one integrated database that will alert commercial vessels and ferries. The alerts will not go out to private or recreational boats. Lieutenant Commander Margaret Woodbridge, the cetacean desk manager, says WRAS also forms the basis for Canada's alert system, called the Marine Mammal Desk.

MARGARET WOODBRIDGE: Us adopting this program - it provides a consistent notification and reporting process for mariners throughout the Salish Sea on both sides of the border.

PAILTHORP: Woodbridge shows me a room full of monitors. Here, Coast Guard personnel alert mariners about weather conditions, environmental hazards and traffic. She says now, these watch standers are also looking for whale reports to feed into the new system.

WOODBRIDGE: They can just take a few pieces of information - vessel name, species, any specific behavior or direction of travel - hand it off to this watch stander right here who then enters that in and sends the report out.

PAILTHORP: The program is designed to reduce the impact of marine traffic on threatened and endangered whales from two things - vessel strikes and underwater noise, which is especially problematic for the region's critically endangered southern resident orcas. That's because orcas echolocate. Noise from fast-moving ships can make it hard for them to find food and to communicate. Researchers have also seen it cause higher levels of stress hormones. There are now just 74 southern resident orcas left in the wild.

WOODBRIDGE: Just the simple presence of ships can cause whales to forage less or to avoid important foraging areas.

PAILTHORP: The hope is that the new cetacean desk will bring in reports from new sources, including nearby U.S. Navy assets. Whale researcher John Calambokidis says he welcomes the Coast Guard's effort, but he's concerned that this new system relies too heavily on data about whales that people see and report.

JOHN CALAMBOKIDIS: People just have to realize the strengths and limitations of this particular reporting scheme is that it heavily emphasizes areas where there are humans and WhaleWatch that can report these sightings.

PAILTHORP: He says many ship strikes happen where there are no people or at night or in bad weather, and the captains often don't even realize it's happened. The Coast Guard says they're working with nonprofits to eventually add technologies, such as machine learning and thermal imaging, to expand the system's whale-detecting capability. For NPR news, I'm Bellamy Pailthorp in Seattle.

(SOUNDBITE OF TWICE SONG, "I GOT YOU")

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Advertisement

Climate change and boat strikes are killing right whales. Stricter speed limits could help them

• Emily Jones, Grist

This story was originally published by Grist . Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here .

Amid a difficult year for North Atlantic right whales, a proposed rule to help protect them is one step closer to reality.

Earlier this month, a proposal to expand speed limits for boats — one of the leading causes of death for the endangered whales — took a key step forward: It’s now under review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the last stage of federal review.

Fewer than 360 of the whales remain; only about 70 of them are females of reproductive age. Every individual whale is considered vital to the species’ survival, but since 2017 right whales have been experiencing what scientists call an “unusual mortality event,” during which 39 whales have died.

Human actions — including climate change — are killing them.

When the cause of a right whale’s death can be determined, it is most often a strike by a boat or entanglement in fishing gear. Three young whales have been found dead this year, two of them with wounds from boat strikes and the third entangled in gear. One of the whales killed by a boat was a calf just a few months old.

Climate change, meanwhile, has disrupted their food supply , driving down right whale birth rates and pushing them into territories without rules in place to protect them.

“Our impacts are so great right now that the risk of extinction is very real,” said Jessica Redfern, associate vice president of ocean conservation at the New England Aquarium. “To be able to save the species, we have to stop our direct human-caused impacts on the population.”

This is not the first time humans have driven North Atlantic right whales to the brink of extinction .

Their name comes from whaling: They were known as the “right” whale to hunt because they spend time relatively close to coastlines, often swimming slowly and near the surface, and they float when dead. They also yielded large amounts of the oil and baleen whalers were after. So humans hunted them to near extinction until it was banned in 1935.

Many of those same characteristics are what make right whales so vulnerable to human-caused dangers today. Because they’re often near the surface in the same waters frequented by fishing boats, harbor pilots, and shipping vessels headed into port, it’s easy for boats to collide with them.

“They’ve been called an urban whale,” said Redfern. “They swim in waters that humans are using; they have high overlap with humans.”

To reduce the risk of vessel strikes, ships over 65 feet long have to slow down during set times of year when the whales are likely to be around. In the southeastern U.S., the speed limits are in force during the winter when the whales are calving; off the New England coast, the restrictions are in place in the spring and summer when they’re feeding. Regulators can also declare voluntary speed restrictions in localized spots if whales are seen, known as dynamic management areas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, in 2022 proposed expanding those restrictions in three ways.

First, the new rule would cover larger geographical areas. The protection zones would extend down the coast from Massachusetts to Florida at various times of year, instead of only applying in certain distinct areas.

Second, the change would apply the speed limits to smaller craft like fishing boats, rather than only ships over 65 feet.

Third, the new rule would make the speed restrictions — the temporary speed limits where whales have been spotted — in dynamic management areas mandatory.

Since NOAA published and gathered feedback on the proposed rule in 2022, whale advocates have been clamoring for the agency to implement it. Those calls have increased in recent months as dead right whales have washed up on beaches.

“There have been three deaths, and that has been really devastating this year, and two of them are related to vessel strikes,” said Redfern. “It’s just highlighted that absolute urgency, the necessity of getting this rule out.”

A leading boating industry group is speaking out against the expanded speed restrictions, arguing they could hurt small businesses in the recreational boating industry.

“We are extremely disappointed and alarmed to see this economically catastrophic and deeply flawed rule proceed to these final stages,” said Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, in a statement. “The proposed rule is based on incorrect assumptions and questionable data, and fails to distinguish between large, ocean-crossing vessels and small recreational boats.”

Right whale scientists have documented in recent years that small, recreational boats can injure and kill right whales. At least four of the lethal vessel strikes since the current restrictions began in 2008 have involved boats smaller than 65 feet and thus not subject to that speed limit, according to Redfern.

NOAA estimated that, based on the size and placement of the propeller wounds, the boat that killed the months-old calf this year was between 35 and 57 feet in length — too small to fall under the existing speed restrictions, but subject to the new rule if it were to be implemented.

In his statement, Hugelmeyer also pointed to new marine technologies aimed at detecting right whales in the water to reduce vessel strikes without expanding the speed rules.

Scientists like Redfern remain skeptical, though.

The tech “offers a lot of promise,” she said, but the speed limits are proven.

“It’s really important, I think, that we rigorously evaluate the technology that’s proposed to make sure that it is going to achieve the same type of risk reduction that we see with the slowdowns in expanded areas,” she said.

Many groups, meanwhile, have raised concerns that offshore wind turbines could harm whales. There is no evidence of that, according to NOAA.

This article originally appeared in Grist ,  a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

More from WBUR