Man rescued after boat hits whale near Fraser Island

A man was rescued yesterday after his boat hit a whale near Hervey Bay and broke in half.

Rescue services were notified about 3am after the man activated his emergency beacon. Queensland police said the EPIRB was activated after the eight-metre vessel collided with the whale at speed and started taking on water.

Water police, a rescue helicopter and volunteer coastguard all attended the incident. According to Queensland Police, the rescue helicopter located the man floating in the water about 20nm off hervey Bay around 4.30am. The Water Police vessel S.W. Gill recovered him from the water about 5.10am.

He was transported to Hervey Bay Hospital with minor injuries.

Marine Rescue Hervey Bay later posted images of the boat being recovered from Awinya Beach.

Hervey Bay Water Police Senior Constable Craig Collings said the location of the man’s EPIRB initially had not been picked up by satellites.

“We later received information that his EPIRB had been located west of Fraser Island within Platypus Bay, and the joint rescue coordination centre in Canberra coordinated a rescue helicopter, and police coordinated marine vessels in the area,” Sen Const Collings said.

“He had an injury to his upper left arm and rib area, so it was a little bit difficult to actually get him into the vessel, but we managed to get him in and he was quite, I suppose, fatigued and relieved at the same time.”

Sen Const Collings said the man was also suffering from mild hypothermia from his time in the water.

He said seas were quite smooth about the time of the crash, although there was “a lot of rain activity” reducing visibility.

Hervey Bay Marine Rescue posted images on its Facebook page showing the boat being recovered from where it had washed ashore at Awinya Beach.

This is the second time in two years that a collision with a whale has sparked a marine rescue.

In 2016, two fisherman were described to be lucky to be alive after their six-metre boat hit a whale at speed about 5.30am and sank off Evans Heads in northern NSW.

"It was still fairly dark at the time, and we were looking out the front of the boat and the next minute we felt this massive bang," Michael Williams, one of the fishermen rescued, told ABC Radio.

"We went into the air, got thrown around from one side to the other, and when I got up we were already ankle-deep in water."

He said the boat sank “within 20 seconds” of the collision.