A whale shark surprised the people aboard the fishing boat Jamaica off New Jersey. The boat was fishing for tuna in Hudson Canyon on Saturday afternoon, October 10, 2026, when the animal appeared alongside it. NJ101.5 reports, citing the crew, that the shark stayed with the boat for about 45 minutes.
The whale shark swam back and forth beside the boat. The crew described the sighting as rare in the waters they fish, but also reported previous encounters. NJ.com shows the footage, credited to “125’ Jamaica”.
An offshore sighting, not an encounter at a swimming beach
The report places the sighting in Hudson Canyon off the coast near Brielle. It gives neither a measured length for the animal nor exact coordinates. The fishing boat’s length and general maximum sizes for whale sharks cannot be used as the size of this particular shark.
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a fish, not a whale. As a filter feeder, it eats plankton and small fish, among other things. The filmed encounter documents a single offshore sighting; it does not establish a new population trend or regular presence at New Jersey’s swimming beaches.