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VIDEOS: Fish and Other Animals Jump into Boats

You never know what might decide to join you in an open boat.

Don’t you just hate it when company arrives, uninvited and unexpected. That’s particularly true when you’re in an open boat which may prove a little crowded for you and your “guest.” And it’s even more true when the guest outweighs you by a few hundred pounds or has snapping, dagger-like teeth, or a long, sharp spear it’s waving around.

Call it kismet or just plain bad luck, but these 12 videos, many documenting wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time situations — though not all involving fish — might have you looking over your shoulder next time you’re out for a day of fishing.

This is the most recent and probably the most viral of all such videos. If you haven’t seen it, you need to; if you have, it’s worth a quick watch again. In the wild waters off Cairns, Australia, a blue marlin leaps into a charter boat and makes a full 360-degree tour of the cockpit, during which time the deckhand decides he’ll take his chances with the sharks and jumps off the transom. Probably a wise decision: The marlin’s bill punched a hole through the tuna door!

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You can read about the entire incident here.

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HOLY CRAP! Just quoting the young lady whom you’ll hear apologizing profusely when a large tarpon she’d hooked decided to leap into a nearby boat — not entirely unusual in the circus known as Boca Grande (Florida) — where it proceeded to pound itself bloody and enjoyed some revenge by demolishing several rods and damaging the boat.

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Another viral video but obligatory for a collection showing fish jumping into boats. And as much as we’ve all seen the phenomenon of Asian carp trying to fly, when they’re this thick, it still tends to blow one’s mind. This insanity took place in a small drainage ditch near the flooded Spoon river in west-central Illinois.

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In the blink of any eye, a fish with the speed of a barracuda can transport itself from the water to your boat. Heads-up! This 40-pounder came aboard off St. Augustine, Florida.

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In the you-never-know-what-might-come-aboard department, watch as a penguin jumps from icy waters onto an inflatable full of people. Of course it had good reason — those on the boat should be counting their blessings that the killer whales in pursuit of the little bird — now taunting them from safety of the small inflatable — decided to give it up.

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Another one off Cairns, where a 600-pound black marlin wanted a better look at anglers and crew in a 76-foot Warren. She was a terrible guest, tearing up a fighting chair and doing more damage including slightly injuring one dude, in the few seconds she was chillin’ in the cockpit. Then she excused herself and was gone as quick as she’d come.

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Okay, let’s be honest (since you’d figure it out soon enough). This one didn’t just “happen,” it was staged — apparently for the 1981 movie, Roar. But it is nevertheless truly a bizarre scene that begins with a tiger jumping into a boat with three men, which then sinks and, suddenly, a whole bunch of full-grown tigers (and throw in some lions for good measure) are playing with people in the water. No, we’re not making this up. Watch the video clip!

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This boat ain’t big enough for the three of us: Off southern Costa Rica, a boat from Crocodile Bay Resort hooked another sailfish on a flat-calm day and, as sails will do, it went wild. But in this case, that manifested itself in a greyhounding performance on a trajectory directly to boat, and suddenly in it. The angler and the mate called sayonara on that, and then there was one — one pissed-off sailfish, alone in the empty cockpit.

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Unlike other videos, here, the visitor was in fact invited on board. Like the penguin you saw earlier, a pack of killer whales made the swim platform of this boat very attractive to a sea otter. Her plaintive calls to her baby — a lost cause — are poignant but she lived to see another day.

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10. Here we don’t see the event, but the aftermath — with a very large eagle ray on the foredeck of a bay boat, where it leapt — fortunately without hitting and seriously injuring any of the anglers. Here, they face the task of getting it safely back into water.

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This is less about something coming into the boat than onto it. All requisite jokes pertaining to changing underwear are applicable.

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You want to see fish jumping into a boat? Check out this video of two anglers who’ve actually perfected a technique to call them in… no joke!

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