I Thought I Was Gone': Another Encounter Between Kayaker and Pod of Whales

Even if you were floating in the open ocean vulnerable to whatever is below, you probably still wouldn't expect something like, say, a humpback whale to pop up next to you. But this is exactly what happened to kayakers in two rather recent occasions, shaking them up a little bit.

Last month, a surfer and kayaker in Santa Cruz, Calif., were stunned by two whales lunging out of the water while feeding in front of them. And more recently, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia, a man fishing in his kayak was startled by a pod of up to eight humpback whales that gave him a little nudge.

Take look:

According to the Daily Telegraph, 40-year-old Jeff Sheppeard was not alarmed at first by the two juvenile whales he saw, until they started coming his way:

"The little one came over and he has flapped his flipper fin in the side about 2m from my kayak and I though 'Jeez, that's getting a bit close'," Mr Sheppeard said.

"He went down, under my kayak and as he came up his back just hit the front of my kayak.

"I was packing it because he had been tail slapping just before that and I thought if he did it again I'd end up in the drink with a headache.

[...]

"Even the baby ones are still like 5m long, so you feel very insignificant when they are right on you like that. I was pretty shaky at the time. I thought I was gone."

Sheppeard said that he had his camera rolling when he first saw the smaller whales farther off, giving him the perfect shot when the larger pod later appeared around him.

[H/T Fox News]