Most of us try to avoid megafauna when we play in the ocean. But sometimes, the megafauna just comes to us. And that’s exactly what happened recently when two kayakers were paddling just offshore of Avila Beach, California.
Out for a fun day on the water, the tandem boaters accidentally found themselves right on top of a massive bait ball. As shown in the (crazy) videos below, a feeding humpback whale unexpectedly breaches directly beneath the kayak and takes it within its jaws, along with a swarm of fish.
Both kayakers reportedly survived with minimal injuries, but were understandably shaken by the experience.
According to Whalehouse.ca, “Humpback Whales can fit a lot of water inside their mouths. An average sized Humpback can take in around 20,000 liters at one time. To put that into perspective, that’s enough to fill a small pool, and more than enough to suck in a person that’s snorkeling nearby or a scuba diver that’s in the vicinity. … A Humpback Whale has a small esophagus and therefore isn’t capable of swallowing large prey.”
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So essentially the narrowness of the Humpback Whale’s throat made it impossible for the aquatic mammal to actually swallow the kayakers.
But due to the extreme power of the animal’s jaws, the boaters were deemed very lucky to escape without sustaining critical blunt-force injuries. As of publication, it’s been reported that local researchers plan to locate the whale and determine if it sustained injuries during the close encounter.
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