TEEN angler Drew Hall has had a lucky escape after a whale encounter off the NSW North Coast.
A humpback breached right next to the Hall family’s 5m runabout while they were fishing, with the whale’s tail smashing on to the boat’s deck, hitting the teen and knocking him out cold.
The bruised 13-year-old, recovering at home in Maclean, near Yamba, was still stunned by the freakishly close encounter yesterday.
“You think how big the ocean is and we managed to get hit by a whale – it’s pretty amazing,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“I don’t really remember much. We’d had one quick fish and we were moving positions, and the whale just jumped up and smashed on to the boat.”
Drew’s parents had at first thought their son had been killed as the drama unfolded.
The pair leapt to their son’s aid and discovered he was unconscious – but apparently not breathing.
The teenager came to after a few agonising moments, was barely responsive and had suffered serious bruising and a broken collarbone.
The family’s boat – aptly named Scales & Tails – was damaged but managed to limp the 2km back to shore where paramedics were waiting to take the teen to hospital.