Whale sinks boat in Alaska

6 hours ago

A family vacationing in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska ended in tragedy. Their 25-foot sailboat collided with a humpback whale at night and sank, People reported.

Tanya Lewis, her husband Eric, and their 23-year-old son, Lou, were on a boat trip on July 29. At around 11:30 p.m., Lou woke up to a loud crash and woke her parents. The boat began to fill with water. The boat sank within three minutes of the collision. The family had no time to grab their life jackets and made their way to shore in a rubber dinghy.

The family, who reached shore at midnight, gathered firewood and made a fire using pages from a book. Tanya tried to contact emergency services using her walkie-talkie. At around 3:00 a.m., the captain of the National Geographic Quest cruise ship, which was passing through the area, reported their location to rangers via satellite phone. At 6:30 a.m., park rangers rescued the family.

Later, when the boat was pulled from the water, a large hole in its hull was found, large enough for a man to fit through, and pieces of black skin belonging to a whale were found. Biologists confirmed that the material did indeed belong to a humpback whale. Experts say that humpback whales make sudden movements when feeding, and such collisions occur by chance.

Earlier, it was reported that a deadly virus was detected in Arctic whales.