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Humpback Whales Pop Up Right Next To B.C. Fishing Boat

Happy New Year to you too, whale!

What a way to ring in the new year.

A pair of humpback whales got up-close and personal with a group of fishermen near Nanaimo, B.C. on Friday, swimming breathtakingly close to their boat.

Kyle Noble said he and his buddies were catching prawns for bait in preparation for a fishing trip when they saw the mammals coming their way.

One swam right underneath the boat before popping up to say hello. The whale gets so close, you can see barnacles growing on its head. (Watch above at the 0:53 mark.)

Happy New Year to you too, whale.

Noble said the whales eventually swam away, and the boat moved about two kilometres south — but the humpbacks came back again.

"It was pretty cool," Noble told The Huffington Post B.C. on Monday. "We pulled our gear up quickly and cut the engines so we could watch."

The fisherman uploaded two videos — one from each encounter — to his Facebook page before creating a compilation on Saturday.

Not a bad way to kick off 2016.

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