Crew were thrown into the water when a huge blue whale came down on top of their RIB
Two people had a huge shock after an 80ft long blue whale capsized their 21ft inflatable RIB on Thursday morning.
The incident, which happened 12 miles off the coast of San Diego, sees wildlife photographer Dale Frink and skipper Cici Sayers screaming as the giant mammal emerges from the water before slamming onto the vessel and flipping the boat over.
Footage posted online shows the camera being engulfed in water as the two occupants are thrown into the sea.
The pair had been whale watching when they came across two of the mammals feeding on krill.
Cici Sayers told the BBC: “We were watching the whales 150 yards off when I heard it come up behind me and I turned around and it just came down. I literally thought it was trying to take a bite out of the back of the boat.”
In a statement on his website, Dale Frink said: “Unfortunately for us, the blue whales resurfaced directly
behind the boat without warning, mouths completely open in the middle of
another lunge feed.
“We had little time to react. At the time I had
two GoPro cameras mounted pointing directly in front of the boat, one of
them caught me turning to see the whale and snap a photo of the first
whale making contact with the boat.
“The second blue whale of the pair
then came up even closer and bumped the boat again, giving it the last
bit of inertia it needed to go completely overboard.”
In another interview with Fox5, Ms Sayers said: “I’ve always stayed away from them as far as I can, I don’t deliberately allow them to come close. This was just kind of freaky.
“I’m anxious to get my boat fixed and yeah, I think I’ll go back out there. It’s not for the feint of heart, but I have never been a shrinking violet.”
Luckily, neither of the two were harmed during the incident and they were shortly rescued by another boat that was nearby.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rdYKpBDwaA