© AP PhotoEach year whales migrate up the coast of Western Australia to give birth in warm tropical waters before returning to Antarctica at the end of spring
The trio, aged 24, 48 and 50, sent out a mayday in the middle of the night after their 46-foot timber vessel started taking on water.
Moments later they were forced to abandon the boat. The group, one of whom could not swim, spent four hours clinging to an ice box in choppy seas before they were rescued.
"They hit something hard, solid, they suspect it's a whale," senior sergeant Greg Trew of WA Water Police told the Australian Associated Press.
The men, who were wearing life-jackets, set off an emergency beacon, which helped an oil rig crew that had come to their rescue spot them in heavy seas.
"Horrendous seas out there," Sgt Trew said. "It was pretty shocking conditions: 35-knot winds and three- to four-meter (10- to 13-foot) swells. It would have been pretty bloody awful."
The men are said to be in a good condition but were being assessed at a hospital in the town of Exmouth, 800 miles north of Broome.
Each year whales migrate up the coast of Western Australia to give birth in warm tropical waters before returning to Antarctica at the end of spring.
one for the Whales.
These men must have been informed of what is possible in these waters at this specific time of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.
You do not go so close to them as they happen to be protective of their young and will get between a noisy human boat and their child.
One more time now.
You do not go so close these beautiful animals as they will do what any mother will do.
Arsholes! Leave them alone.