Alaska paddleboarder narrowly escapes collision with humpback whale

Harris Marley

World Courant

An Alaska man on a paddleboard escaped an in depth encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting moist throughout a tense few seconds caught on digicam by family and friends as the large creature surfaced proper in entrance of him then glided below his board.

“It’s simply so large. You’re puny in opposition to this whale,” Kevin Williams of Anchorage mentioned Thursday, every week after his journey with an grownup humpback whale in Prince William Sound. Grownup females can weigh as much as 70,000 kilos and common about 49 ft in size, in accordance with the Alaska Division of Fish and Recreation. Males are slightly smaller.

Williams mentioned anybody who claims they would not be afraid in that scenario is loopy.

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The whale started to method his pals, however they have been near the shoreline so he figured the whale would run out of room and reverse course. He thought he was within the most secure spot since he was trailing the group.

The whale went underwater for about 45 seconds, longer than he had observed it dive earlier than.

“And it surfaced proper in entrance of me, coming in the direction of me,” Williams mentioned. “Whoa! I like to see whales up shut, however I am on a paddleboard.”

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