Humpback whale is spotted off Dune Road in Westhampton Beach

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A whale slaps it tail off of Dune Road Saturday, August 15. Paul Mandella's boat, Maybe Tonight, was close to the whale that evening.

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Two men returning from a disappointing trip fishing for striped bass earlier this month encountered a much bigger marine animal: an endangered whale.

At about 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 15, Paul Mandella, 51, of Oakdale, and John Shephard, 70, of Farmingdale were in their boat about a quarter of a mile south of the La Ronde Beach Club on Dune Road in Westhampton Beach when they observed what they believed to be a 30-foot-long humpback whale slapping its tail and spewing water from its blowhole.

“If you were to drop a car into the water from a crane, that’s what it sounded like,” Mr. Mandella said about the sound made by the whale’s tail hitting the water’s surface.

Mr. Mandella and Mr. Shephard spotted the tail while the whale was about 50 yards away from their boat, in about 25 feet of water, according to Mr. Mandella’s depth finder. The pair had spent the day unsuccessfully fishing for striped bass in Montauk and were returning to Burnett’s Marina in Bay Shore on Mr. Mandella’s 28-foot boat, Maybe Tonight.

“It looked like he was digging around on the bottom,” Mr. Mandella said. “Like he was doing a handstand.”

At first, Mr. Mandella thought the whale was caught in an old fishing net, but quickly realized that the mammal was not in distress. He recorded a video of the splashing and the film can be viewed on YouTube.com.

“It made up for not catching any fish,” Mr. Mandella said of the whale sighting. “We were talking about it the rest of the way home.”

The whale could have been trying to scrape barnacles off its face in the sand, speculated John Rosseland, 43. His wife’s family owns a beach house next door to the La Ronde Beach Club, and he also spotted the whale from the home’s back deck that day.

“Everyone dropped what they were doing and grabbed binoculars and cameras,” Mr. Rosseland said, describing the scene outside the beach club when the whale starting frolicking in the water.

Mr. Rosseland, a resident of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, and his wife have been visiting the same beach house on weekends for the past 15 years. They’ve seen basking sharks, sunfish and seals in the ocean, but never a whale before the visit almost two weeks ago.

“You get to see such action only on TV and, if so, only on high seas but never as close to the shore,” said Christoph Rosenberg, 40, of Morris County, New Jersey, in an e-mail. He was visiting the Rosselands on August 15 and snapped pictures of the whale.

“The whale is a beautiful and amazing animal,” he said. “We were just lucky to be [there] at the right time, in the right spot, to see such a memorable display of force and beauty of nature.”

The rolling hump on the whale’s back and white splotches on its tail have led Mr. Rosseland to believe that he saw a humpback whale. Though it is difficult to confirm the species of whale, Robert DiGiovanni, the director for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said the mammal spotted off the coast of Westhampton Beach on August 15 was very likely a humpback whale.

Humpback whales have been listed on the federal endangered species list since June 2, 1970, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. An estimated 10,000 humpback whales were residing in the northern Atlantic when the most recent stock assessments were completed 12 years ago by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Today, there could be twice that number in the same area, said Richard Pace, a research wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Scientists are now updating their statistical information on humpback whales and researching if the species can be removed from the federal endangered species list. Scientists have until October 13 to submit supporting materials, according to the federal register.

Some humpback whales have been known to breed as far south as the Caribbean, though they tend to feed in the colder northern Atlantic waters. They eat schooling fishes, like mackerel and herring, which can be found in New York waters, Mr. Pace said.

It is unusual to spot such a species off the Hamptons’ coast. Whales migrate north in the Atlantic Ocean at this time of year in search of food and Long Island is in their path. However, they usually come and go undetected, Mr. DiGiovanni said.

“It’s common to have these animals offshore,” he said. “It’s not common to have sightings.”

Even large humpback whales—experts say adults can grow to about 50 feet in length and weigh nearly 80,000 pounds—can navigate water as shallow as 25 feet, according to Mr. DiGiovanni. “They are pretty well adapted to navigating in their environment,” he said.