Dan and Andie Goff were out boating near the Afton Marina on the St. Croix River in Minnesota when they came across a stunning sight…a wild bald eagle.
“We saw the eagle right out of the marina, right near a buoy,” Dan told The Star Tribune. “It was pretty cool.”
The eagle was just feet away from the pair’s boat, and appeared to be floating in the water. Because of this, the Goffs originally thought the bird was injured.
But they soon realized the eagle was perfectly healthy. And instead of struggling to survive, the majestic bird was struggling to pull a fish in to shore.
Not long after the Goffs’ boat approached, the eagle started to move toward the shore. As the bird flapped his large wings to paddle toward his destination, Dan and Andie speculated what kind of fish he was pulling in.
At first, the Goffs thought the eagle had a walleye, then wondered if it caught a bass.
Finally, the eagle brought its catch to shore. As the fish came into view, the Goffs realized why the eagle had to work so hard to claim its lunch.
“It’s a huge, live muskie!” Dan can be heard saying in a video he filmed of the event.
“Good job, buddy!” Andie praised the eagle.
The eagle had left the fish pretty close to the water, so it tried to escape at one point. But the eagle quickly stopped it, and brought it a little higher on the bank so it couldn’t get away again.
Dan shared the video of the eagle encounter on Twitter, and it soon went viral. As of press time, it has over 2.3 million views.
When asked by someone how the battle between the eagle and muskie ended, Dan was happy to share an update. He posted a short video from an hour after the original clip was filmed, and it shows the eagle devouring its hard-earned lunch.
“The musky didn’t have a chance,” Dan wrote.
This was an hour later. The musky didn't have a chance. pic.twitter.com/raDUBRQ2PG
— Dan Goff (@dgoff17) August 15, 2019
We bet this is one moment that Dan and Andie will never forget! Tune in to the Goffs’ video below to watch the eagle’s incredible effort to pull its massive catch to shore.
Nature is an amazing thing!