If you’re afraid of swimming in the ocean due to a fear of the unknown below you, you might want to skip over the post. A group of divers off the coast of California got a scare recently when they had an extremely close call with large humpback whales. They almost found themselves in the mouths of the feeding whales, and multiple cameras were there to capture what happened (note: the video above contains some strong language).



The two divers were floating in the water near Avila Beach in southern California. They had cameras strapped to their heads, and were capturing underwater footage while whales fed on fish nearby. Other group members were standing on a nearby boat with cameras as well.

Footage captured by one of the diver’s head-cams shows that the water was dark, murky, and quiet when suddenly a huge school of fish rumbled to the surface and began swirling around the divers. What happened next was crazy: two humpback whales broke through the surface of the water in unison just feet away from the divers, chomping down on large mouthfuls of fish:

Adult humpback whales weigh roughly 79,000 pounds and measure up to 52 feet long. Here’s an illustration showing the size of one when placed next to a human diver:

The crazy encounter resulted in some amazing footage and still frames, but the divers probably weren’t in much real danger: humpback whales have a diet consisting of tiny krill and small fish — they don’t feed on humans.

Image credits: Footage and still frames by Jay Hebrard, Francis Antigua, Jeremy Bonnett, and Shawn Stamback