iStockphoto / Gema Alvarez Fernandez
Swimming with a humpback whale is a bucket list experience for millions of people worldwide and one such whale experienced that thrill and a whole lot more last week when they snorkeled with a humpback off Australia’s Gold Coast and were launched into the air by the whale itself.
The moment has gone viral because, against all odds, it was actually captured on camera by ‘Max and Jacqueline’ who shared the video on their YouTube channel. At the 9:33 second mark in the video you can actually see one of the snorkelers being launched into the air by the powerful humpback whale:
Speaking with media after this once-in-a-lifetime encounter, they said the whales were swimming in their vicinity for around 20 minutes and getting “closer and closer” to the snorkelers when this moment happened. The group of snorkelers were holding onto a tow rope in order to stay together near the boat and it’s believed the whale felt the rope brush it and the flicking off of the snorkeler was a similar response to how we’d react to a mosquito in our ear.
Jacqueline Payne told the Daily Mail Australia “we didn’t expect them to get that close, but they were the most curious whales, our guide mentioned it’s quite rare for them to be so curious.”
She went on to say “it was a bit scary because we didn’t know at the time why it had happened. From what I could tell everyone just had a lot of adrenaline and shock at what happened. It was exciting once we realized everyone was safe and that it wasn’t an act of aggression.”
It certainly never looked like a moment of aggression but seeing that snorkeler fly limb over limb a few feet through the air after being swatted like a fly by the tail of a humpback whale…
Honestly, I want that for myself. This like the first time I saw kids getting launched on The Blob in Heavyweights back in 1995. I want to know what it feels like to be tossed through the air like that… Is that too much to ask for, Poseidon? Is it?