A group of whale watchers who set off from Washington's San Juan Island on Monday could not have wished for a more intimate encounter with a humpback.
The group were in the Haro Straight, in Canadian waters near D'Arcy Island, when the magnificent creature appeared in the distance, passenger Jeanne Hyde writes on her blog, Whale Of A Porpoise. The whale disappeared for a while before she suddenly appeared right next to the boat.
"She was under us... all around us ... more than once her head was on the starboard side while her tail was on the port side! - Scary!!," Hyde writes.
Hyde uploaded an 11-minute video to YouTube that shows the once-in-a-lifetime experience these lucky day-trippers had with the whale they have nicknamed "Wendy".
The boat's captain, Jim Maya of Maya's Westside Whale Watch Charters, told CBC he thought the whale was probably around five years old. While the passengers were thrilled at the up-close-and-personal nature of the sighting, there were times during the hour-long encounter that they were understandably concerned, too.
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