From time to time, nature shows itself in full splendor to remind us of how small we really are. This power has recently been captured in the Californian waters on Monterey Bay. The bay is home to many species of ocean animals and is on the migratory path of Gray and Humpback whales, making it a popular whale-watching spot.
Douglas took incredible photos of the giant marine mammal from the porthole of his boat. The scene got him stunned for a few seconds but he immediately took out his camera and snapped it. Luckily, his shooting angle enabled him to get a bigger and clearer view of the whale. Noticeably, the creature made the fishing boat look incredibly tiny in comparison.
The photographer also had help from a whale watcher, Kate Cummings, who managed to capture a video of the whale breaching in action. The whale watcher revealed to the media:
“It was fun capturing this video. The whale had already breached multiple times much further away from the fisherman. But sometimes when whales breach multiple times, they’re also heading a specific direction when they’re underwater building momentum for the next breach. I figured the next breach would be around the fisherman because the whale was heading that way and sure enough! Though I didn’t expect the whale and the boat to line up so perfectly.”
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Adult humpback whales weigh around 25–30 metric tons (28–33 short tons). Humpback whales will often do a series of breaches, so when Croft spotted this whale doing jumps, he made sure he was ready.
The cool photos and the video footage (which you can see below) shows the whale shooting up through the ocean waves close to an unsuspecting fishing boat named Baja Sueno.
“The whale is huge! If I’d been the fisherman, I’d probably need some new underwear,” the photographer who captured the incredible close encounter told the media.
