THIS is the horrifying moment a massive whale thrashes into a boat and hurls a woman into the sea.

A video taken by a passenger on a nearby vessel captured the ordeal, which saw the 20ft minke smash into the motor in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey on Sunday.

Kim Mancinin said the whale appeared to be “really in distress” before the boaters arrived.

“It was really in distress. That’s when it would go under boats, it was a crazy experience,” she told 6abs.

After flailing around in the ocean, the animal found itself under the boat’s hull.

Terrifying footage shows the boat bobbing on the sea as the whale’s fin jerks out just a few metres away.

Moments later, the animal is captured thrashing under the motor before sending a woman flying into the water.

She was quickly pulled to safety and did not sustain any injuries.

Meanwhile, the whale reportedly died.

This isn’t the first time a whale was caught capsizing a boat.

Last year, A video taken by a pair of brothers on a nearby ship captured the terrifying ordeal, showing the exact moment a whale submerged a fishing boat near the New Hampshire coast.

Brothers Colin and Wyatt Yager, both Maine natives, said they were fishing about a half-mile off the coast of Rye, New Hampshire – about 10 miles southwest of Portsmouth Harbor – when the whale first appeared.

Portsmouth Harbor is located about 50 miles northeast of Boston, Massachusetts.

Colin quickly took out his phone to film the whale, eager to get the sighting on camera.

“I had my fishing rod right here, phone in my hand, and just saw it go up, and was just lucky enough to be facing the right direction,” Colin said, as reported by ABC affiliate WMUR.

Colin’s brother Wyat was shocked at what happened next.

“I saw it come up, and I was just like, ‘Oh no, it’s going to hit the boat!’ and then it started to flip,” Wyatt Yager said.

They watched as the whale emerged from the water, crashing on top of a nearby fishing boat.

The brothers jumped into action to help rescue two individuals on board, who had fallen into the water as their boat capsized.

At least one of the two fishermen was wearing a lifejacket, according to reports.

“When I turned, the whale’s head was already landing on the engine,” said fisherman Greg Paquette.

“So when I saw that, then all of a sudden, I look down, the boat is pitching up, the transom is going down into the water.”

The other fisherman on board, Ryland Kenney, called the experience “surreal.”

“Everything seemed like in slow motion. It was really weird,” he said.

“Everyone was like, ‘Oh, it was eight seconds. How’d you move so fast?’ But it was almost slow motion, like a movie.”