A whale died after boaters saw it make contact with at least two boats in New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay on Saturday.

The whale caused one boat to tip over and a passenger fell off the vessel. Video footage shows the tense moments, Fox Weather reported.

“Oh my God, they’re going over! Oh, man overboard!” someone behind the camera yells as the scene unfolds. After the person fell into the water, she appeared to swim to the bow of the boat as the whale flopped around in the water nearby:

Per the Fox article, the creature was identified as a 20-foot minke whale that had swum into shallow waters near the Double Creek Channel.

The whale died before rescuers could save it. Boater John Barrett recalled seeing the whale in the shallow water of an inlet but it later moved to the channel area where the water is a mere few feet deep.

Barrett then explained, “Some boats were trying to get a picture, getting closer and closer. They were getting too close to get a picture.”

More video shows the whale in distress as it tried to move into deeper water. It apparently hit the boats as it tried to do so, per the ABC 7 report. The outlet noted the woman who was thrown from her boat was not hurt during the incident:

“The Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) in Brigantine was contacted by the New Jersey State Police Marine Unit about the whale in Barnegat Bay near the inlet,” the Fox report said. “A multiple-agency response was coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Conservation, marine police and Sea Tow with a stranding coordinator from MMSC.”

However, “Before MMSC could arrive, Sea Tow officials reported the whale was dead,” the article noted. Officials later found the whale on a sandbar in shallow water. It could not be reached on Saturday due to tidal conditions, but the whale will later be moved to a state park for a necropsy.

Minke whales in the United States are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, according to the NOAA Fisheries website.

“The common minke whale is the smallest baleen whale in North American waters. These rorquals have a relatively small, dark, sleek body that can reach lengths of up to about 35 feet and weigh up to 20,000 pounds,” the site read.

A rorqual is “any of five particular species of baleen whales,” Britannica.com says.

“Common minke whales prefer temperate to boreal waters but are also found in tropical and subtropical areas. They feed most often in cooler waters at higher latitudes and can be found in both coastal/inshore and oceanic/offshore areas,” the NOAA Fisheries website added.