Close Call with Feeding Whales

[n2doc]

If you’re afraid of swimming in the ocean due to a fear of the unknown below you, you might want to skip over the post. A group of divers off the coast of California got a scare recently when they had an extremely close call with large humpback whales. They almost found themselves in the mouths of the feeding whales, and multiple cameras were there to capture what happened (note: the video above contains some strong language).

http://petapixel.com/2013/07/22/divers-capture-what-its-like-to-almost-get-eaten-by-a-massive-whale/

[Politicalboi]

1. Those guys were lucky

Those whales could have swallowed them with no problem.

[rwsanders]

10. I doubt if that was ever really a potential problem...

I've been seeing headlines like this everywhere, but I was watching a documentary call "A Life Among Whales" about Dr. Roger Payne (he was the one that marketed the LP's of whale songs, I have both) and he describes being in the water the first time with whales and was amazed because he was so clumsy in the water, but the whale despite it's bulk was perfectly in control and never caused him any harm, even inadvertently.
My wife and I went to the Beluga encounter at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago (I know captive whales, a guilty pleasure, and I'm torn about the captivity), but anyway, when the belugas swam inches from our legs, you couldn't even feel movement of the water.
All in all, I'm sure the whales knew exactly where the people were and had no intention of swallowing a person.

[life long demo]

2. O M G !

I'm sitting here with my jaw hanging, saying holy shit. I want to say I wish I was in the water then, but maybe the boat would be the place to be. I've watched that several times, wow. Thanks for the video.

[Scuba]

3. What a thrill! I'm sooooo jealous! Thanks n2doc!!

[ladjf]

4. The whales appeared to be rounding up schools of fish to eat. The swimmers were right in the

middle of the bait fish. If they knowingly did that, that might be eligible for the "Darwin Award".

[tk2kewl]

7. that was my thought

If this wasn't a team of scientists doing research weren't they breaking some law about screwing with marine mammals?

[ladjf]

9. At best they were interfering with the whale's normal hunting process. The whales would not

have intentionally swallowed the divers. However, they could have unintentionally scooped
up a diver with probable bad results for the swimmers.

[arcane1]

5. Well, there goes any plans I'll ever have for getting into the ocean again.

[Larkspur]

6. Awesome video!

Wonder if this event thousands of years ago inspired the Story of Jonah be swallowed by Leviathan?

If those divers did get caught by the whale, would their scuba gear injure the whale's stomach? Or would it kill the whale?

[marked50]

8. Jonah got away with it---nt

[mnhtnbb]

11. Hubby was diving Santa Cruz Islands in CA many, many years ago and

had a humpback whale come right up next to him. He was able to look right in the whale's eye.
Said it was an incredible experience, but he never had any fear of it.