NPR reports that the two divers, Shawn Stamback and Francis Antigua, were passing time before their next dive in the area north of Pismo beach when two humpback whales surfaced to eat the school of fish swimming near the two.
“You see pictures, representations of how big a humpback whale is compared to a bus, to a jet, when you see one in person that close they are giant, and it blew my mind how big they are,” Stamback told NBC News.
Both divers swam back to safety, with Stamback adding that he’d never swam so fast in his life. Stamback’s friends had a few jokes waiting when he got onto the boat, like “You’re going to have do more to clean that wetsuit.”
The video has since gone viral, viewed over a million times since it was posted on July 20.
Science Recorder says that humpback whales can weigh up to 40 tons and feed mostly on krill and baitfish like sardines. Humpbacks take in huge amounts of fish and expel excess seawater through their baleen plates.
The whales in the video were using a technique called bubblenet feeding, which involves the whales swimming in circles and releasing bubbles underneath schooling fish. Once their prey is together in a tight ball, the whales lunge and can eat thousands of fish in one gulp.
By law, boats are to required to be at least 100 yards (90 metres) away from whales.
