Onlookers ‘ooh and ahh’ in delight as huge creature breaches ‘just inches’ from CA boat
As a boat full of whale watchers sat off the coast of California, a massive creature appeared “just inches” away.
The boat was completely stopped off the coast of Newport Beach when a humpback whale gifted onlookers with an “incredible moment,” Newport Coastal Adventure said in an Aug. 5 Instagram post.
A video shared by the whale-watching company shows the whale swimming closely beside the boat, breaching the water as onlookers “ooh and aah.”
“This is a very rare behavior,” Mark Girardeau with the whale-watching company told NBC4 News. “The whale circled our boat for about 30 minutes.”
Social media users also took delight in the encounter.
“I would cry,” one user commented on the company’s post.
Though the company said it has seen mostly blue and fin whales recently, it suggested that perhaps “things are switching up as more anchovies move into the area.”
Newport Beach is about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
What to know about humpback whales
Typically, humpback whales can be seen on California whale-watching excursions from mid-May to September, according to the National Park Service.
The whale, which has “14 distinct population segments,” graces the waters of “oceans around the world,” according to NOAA Fisheries.
“They travel great distances every year and have one of the longest migrations of any mammal on the planet,” the agency said.
In the United States, it is “illegal to harass or kill a humpback whale” under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, according to NPS. The whale also has protection from the International Whale Commission, making it illegal to hunt humpback whales globally.
This story was originally published August 11, 2023 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Onlookers ‘ooh and ahh’ in delight as huge creature breaches ‘just inches’ from CA boat."
