Two humpback whales dramatically emerged out of the water right next to a kayaker in California on Sunday— and it was caught on camera in a breathtaking video.
“Wow!” the kayaker, Eddy Willis, exclaims in the brief clip, shortly after the whales surface in front of him in Half Moon Bay, Calif., accompanied by a group of birds. Then he thrusts his arms in the air in excitement.
Willis, a California native, lives and works in Nevada for the Department of Wildlife, KIRO 7 News, a Washington state television station, reported, and frequently paddles and fishes in the ocean. He told the news outlet: “To me, I love whales, I love sharks. … It’s an adrenaline rush more than anything.” The whales were lunge feeding.
Another video published in April showed a less joyful event involving cetaceans: a group of orcas attacking two gray whales near Monterey, Calif. Eventually, one of the whales, a calf, died after being hunted in this manner, the Monterey Bay Whale Watch explained.
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Then, in May, a powerful video showed oodles of a tiger sharks eating a whale carcass in Shark Bay, Australia. That video, which has racked up 2.7 million views, was posted by the Eco Abrolhos tour company.
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