A windsurfer says he and the whale are unscathed after a collision in the San Francisco Bay. Photo: Screenshot//KRON4
A windsurfer enjoying a breezy day on the water in the San Francisco Bay was surprised when an underwater obstacle emerged in his path. As he was cutting through the water on his foil, a whale emerged from the depths to breathe and knocked him off his board.
“It happened so fast. I didn’t really have time to think,” the windsurfer, who was unnamed, told KRON4 in an interview.
The man said he was unscathed, and it appears that the whale was unharmed, too.
“I was actually pretty calm,” he said. “I respect nature. I respect wildlife. I know a lot of people are concerned about the well-being of the whale, but I really don’t think it felt anything, and I was okay, too.”
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The crash was captured from two angles (angle 1 and angle 2).San Francisco saw its first grey whale in the bay back in January, which was unusual because they don’t usually arrive until mid-February.
“It yields a lot of questions, and until we’re able to follow and study them over time, we’re not going to know the answers,” Bill Keener, a field researcher for the Marine Mammal Center, told SF Gate.
Over the past two weeks, four grey whales have been found dead in the San Francisco Bay. Some appear to have been stranded in shallow water, while at least one appeared to have injuries consistent with a vessel strike.
