The Aporia · Massive humpback whale launches out of water, slams into fishing boat off Long Island

Quick Summary

Steven Heid, a fisherman off Long Island’s Moriches Inlet near Fire Island, had a close encounter with a humpback whale weighing between 50,000 and 80,000 pounds that launched out of water and collided with his boat, causing minor damage. The incident was captured on video by Heid’s nephew, Oliver Samter. This event highlights the resurgence in marine life around Long Island; recent sightings include a great white shark off the East End in late June, reflecting a comeback for whales and sharks after years of absence.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-13, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On October 13, 2026, a humpback whale, typically weighing between 50,000 to 80,000 pounds, caused a dramatic incident off the coast of Moriches Inlet on Long Island’s East End. Fisherman Steven Heid and his companions were fishing near Fire Island when they encountered the massive creature. To avoid harming the whale with their boat's propeller, Heid shut down the engine. Moments later, the whale leaped out of the water and collided with the boat, damaging its hatch. Although both the fisherman and the whale escaped unharmed, the incident left everyone in shock. The fisherman stated, “I thought we might be going down, but the boat was OK, the whale was OK.” This encounter highlights the resurgence of marine life in Long Island's waters after decades of decline.

Written for “Whale Strikes Fishing Boat” on 2026-10-14, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Why this leaning score

This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.

No political leaning scored for article 77834 · logged 2026-10-13

Cite this article

APA MLA Chicago

Cruz, B. (2026, October 13). Massive humpback whale launches out of water, slams into fishing boat off Long Island. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/13/us-news/humpback-whale-launches-out-of-water-slams-into-fishing-boat-off-long-island/

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

1 of 13 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

67/100

New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Environment

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Who wrote this

Brandon Cruz

27 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 “I thought we might be going down, but the boat was OK, the whale was OK.

2026-10-13 · assertive framing · Massive humpback whale launches out of water, slams into fishing boat off Long Island

🔮 The Republican pol argued that other courts will “eventually catch up” as he pressed the Flock reps about the tech’s capabilities.

2026-10-13 · assertive framing · Long Island lawmakers grill Flock Safety reps over ‘Big Brother’ surveillance network

🔮 Scientists hunting invisible “ghost particles” more than a mile underground have found surprising clues that could torch everything experts thought they knew about the depths of our planet.

2026-10-07 · mixed framing · New research suggests Earth may be heating unevenly from the inside — possibly upending geology as we know it

🔮 “Threatening to kill a public official or his family is not politics — it is a criminal act, and we will take it seriously and hold those responsible accountable just as we did in this case,” Long added.

2026-10-07 · mixed framing · NY maniac threatens to kill Georgia Rep. Mike Collins and his son-in-law over ‘inaccurate’ article: Feds

🔮 After a short investigation, detectives tracked the thievery back to the duo, who both live in Ontario, Canada, and linked them to similar hug-and-run heists throughout Nassau County, but think there may possibly be more victims, cops said.

2026-10-07 · mixed framing · Romanian jewelry bandits use sweet talk, hug to steal $2k necklace from LI senior citizen

🔮 Suffolk County Police Officer Kevin Martinez told The Post he was on patrol at around 8 p.m. Thursday when he spotted a group of teens playing “the beautiful game” at SSG James D. McNaughton Memorial Park in Centereach and couldn’t resist the competitive urge to jump in and lay down the law.

2026-10-05 · assertive framing · Viral video shows Long Island cop school kids in soccer while wearing full uniform

🔮 That increase is a staggering 140% jump in the controversial tech’s reach around Suffolk’s roads through its police since just last fall — and county officials already revealed to The Post that an additional deal for even more cameras may be on the horizon.

2026-10-04 · mixed framing · Suffolk County more than doubles number of ‘Big Brother’ Flock cameras in past year — with many targeting this tony enclave

🔮 The embattled mayor of Mount Vernon whose handpicked deputy police commissioner was recently charged with attempted murder also broke federal election law, according to the US Office of Special Counsel.

2026-10-04 · speculative framing · NY Dem mayor tied to accused attempted-slay deputy also violated campaign law: feds

🔮 County officials, alongside numerous Italian-American organizations and activists, announced their plans to build the new museum on Thursday, which they said will not only feature the history of how Long Island came to be what it is today, but the contributions of the Italian-Americans who helped forge the region.

2026-10-01 · mixed framing · Suffolk County officials announce a new Italian-American museum opening on Long Island

🔮 Van, born William Webster Van de Grift in 1870, was a star of vaudeville and Broadway before he built the Equity Motion Picture Company on the shores of Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire, which many historians believe was northern New England’s first movie studio.

2026-09-28 · mixed framing · Long-lost 1919 silent comedy found in dusty antique shop in Japan — it’ll finally be seen again

Also by Brandon Cruz

Long Island lawmakers grill Flock Safety reps over ‘Big Brother’ surveillance network

2026-10-13 · New York Post

New research suggests Earth may be heating unevenly from the inside — possibly upending geology as we know it

2026-10-07 · New York Post

NY maniac threatens to kill Georgia Rep. Mike Collins and his son-in-law over ‘inaccurate’ article: Feds

2026-10-07 · New York Post

Romanian jewelry bandits use sweet talk, hug to steal $2k necklace from LI senior citizen

2026-10-07 · New York Post

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 27 articles by Brandon Cruz →

Claims (13 extracted, 1 hedged)

A fisherman on Long Island had a close call with a humpback whale — with dramatic video showing the colossal mammal launching out of the water and smashing into the boat. asserted

mammal → have → boat

The whale — which typically weighs between 50,000 and 80,000 pounds — is seen in the wild clip causing the surrounding fish to flee before it leaps from the ocean and busts the boat’s hatch open as it collides with the vessel. asserted

it → weigh → vessel

“I thought we might be going down, but the boat was OK, the whale was OK. uncertain

whale → think → ?

It was just crazy,” the startled fisherman, Steven Heid, told News 12. asserted

fisherman → tell → News

Heid said he was out fishing with his father-in-law and nephew off Moriches Inlet on the East End adjacent to Fire Island when they spotted the whale a few hundred yards away. asserted

they → say → whale

The mammal then began moving toward their boat, at which point he shut off the engine to avoid hurting the beast with the propeller. asserted

he → begin → propeller

Heid’s nephew, Oliver Samter, began recording as the whale swam closer to the vessel. asserted

whale → begin → vessel

Just seconds later, the giant humpback can be seen shooting straight out of the water. asserted

humpback → see → water

“I was like, ‘Holy cow, what just happened?'” Samter told the outlet. asserted

Samter → happen → outlet

Recently, whales and sharks have been making a comeback in Long Island’s waters after decades of preferring other areas, the Post previously reported. asserted

Post → make → areas

In late June, a gigantic 12-foot-long, 1,000-pound great white shark was tracked off of Long Island’s East End, and the largest great white ever discovered in the Atlantic Ocean was trailing behind it. asserted

white → track → it

“There was a time when seeing a whale here was a rare event,” the New York State Nature Conservancy Oceans and Fisheries Director Carl LoBue said in August. asserted

LoBue → be → August

“Now, there are multiple whale watching boats spotting whales nearly every day, and many times you can see them from the beach,” he added. asserted

he → be → beach

Massive humpback whale launches out of water, slams into fishing boat off Long Island

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Claims (13 extracted, 1 hedged)