A sailor died in Australia after a whale struck and flipped his boat

• A 61-year-old man has died in Australia after a whale struck and flipped his boat, police said.
• His crewmate and brother-in-law survived.

A 61-year-old man has died in Australia after a whale struck and flipped his boat, ejecting both members of its crew, local authorities said.

New South Wales Police said officers pulled the unconscious man from waters off La Perouse, a suburb south-east of Sydney, on Saturday morning after an unoccupied boat was found circling in the waters.

Efforts were made to resuscitate the man, named by Australia's 9 News as Stuart Collings, but they were unsuccessful and he was declared dead at the scene.

A 53-year-old man — Collings' brother-in-law Darren Curmi and the skipper of the boat, according to 9 News — was rescued from the water and treated by paramedics. He was taken to hospital in a stable condition, police said.

Siobhan Munro, acting superintendent of NSW Police, said at a press conference on Saturday that early reports indicated that a whale may have breached near or on top of the boat.

Police described the 15-foot boat as a "runabout vessel."

A witness told 9 News he had heard a big bang early in the morning and saw the boat capsize and "something big" emerge from the water.

The pair of men were thought to have been in the water for around 45-minutes before being rescued, with Curmi staying close to Collings, 9 News reported.

Police didn't say which whale species was likely to have collided with the boat.

Mark Hutchings, executive director of the NSW maritime authority, told a press conference that "an incredible amount of whales around this year, migrating south."

Thousands of humpback whales were due to swim passed Sydney on the way to their summer feeding grounds in Antarctica, Marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta told ABC News.

Australia's coastline is home to 20 small and 10 large species of whales. The largest is the blue whale, which can frow to 100 feet long.