Humpback Whale Surprises Jersey Fishing Boat [VIDEO]

A guy from the Philly suburbs and his dad were out fishing off the Jersey coast on Wednesday when they caught the video of a lifetime.

Zach Piller, 23, and his dad were out on their 18-foot Starcraft off Monmouth County looking for striped bass and tuna when a massive humpback whale breached the sea inches from their boat.

In the video, you can hear the shocked Piller cry out in surprise, cursing and exclaiming that he caught the breached whale on video.

Piller told NBC News that he likes fishing at this time of year because small fish are plentiful and close to shore. Of course, that also attracts whales looking to eat those fish.

The NBC report says that whale sightings have been up significantly this summer and fall along the Jersey coast, and humpbacks have been staying longer for feeding season, possibly to feast on Atlantic menhaden, a small fish they prefer, researchers say.

Last week I told you about a humpback whale that was seen along the Jersey coast the previous day that had apparently been injured in a boat strike.

In a post on Wednesday on Facebook, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said they received a report about the injured humpback whale with a severed fluke - the whale's tail - which they suspect happened in a run-in with a large ship.

When the whale was last seen about 3:30 pm Tuesday afternoon, it was swimming south, about one mile off the coast of Seaside Heights.