Fishermen Get a Surprise When a 900-Pound Dolphin Lands on Their Boat

Mar. 15, 2025

Three friends from New Zealand who went out fishing in their 16-foot boat received an unexpected jolt in the form of a 900-pound dolphin.

Dean Harrison, Milton Brookland and Austyn Holbrow recalled the Friday, Feb. 28, incident that occurred while they were fishing near a spot known as “Hole in the Rock” off the coast of New Zealand’s North Island, reported theAssociated PressandStuff.

As he also recalled in hisFacebook post, Harrison and his friends were heading out to approach some kingfish when “a dolphin done a massive vertical jump right at the front of the boat.”

“In the blink of an eye, there was a massive crash and boom, then a live 400kg dolphin filling the inside of our small open top boat going absolutely ballistic,” Harrison wrote. “It was like a tornado with this huge thrashing creature throwing fishing gear and rods and reels everywhere while people were scrambling to move out of the way.”

“Everyone was trying to make themselves as small as possible while we clung to the edges of the boat watching the chaos unfold in front our eyes,” he continued.

Holbrow told Stuff that he sustained an injury to his arm during the incident, adding, “We immediately started spraying it with water and trying to cover it.”

The trio weren’t able to return the creature to the water because of its size and weight, so they contacted a conservation agency and drove their vessel containing the dolphin to a boat ramp where workers were ready to help, the AP reported. During the ride, the friends kept the dolphin hydrated with a hose.

After checking out the dolphin, the conservation team brought it to a platform and towed the creature to the waters, reported Stuff.

Harrison later reflected on how incredible and fortunate it was that no one was seriously hurt or worse during the initial dolphin encounter.

“This event could have easily had a catastrophic outcome,” he wrote. “If we hadn’t all been placed where we were on the boat at the time this happened, we would have been right in the path of having this animal land on us.”

Harrison said the conservation team named the dolphin Tohu, which means “sign” in the Maori language.

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The skipper added that the boat suffered some minor damage, but nothing that would have caused the vessel to tip over or sank.

Because his boat didn’t have a name at the time, Harrison decided to also give it the Tohu moniker to memorialize the incident.

“The dolphin got to swim away and we got to walk away and we’ve all got a story to tell,” Harrison told the AP.

PEOPLE reached out to Harrison on Wednesday, March 5, for additional comment.

source: people.com