Photos Shows Moment Humpback Whale Breaches Near Fishing Boat

A humpback whale slaps its tail on the surface of the water off the shore of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, on March 8, 2008. Issei Kato/Reuters

A video shows the moment a humpback whale—one of the largest species of whale—leaping from the ocean near a fishing boat.

The whale sighting was captured in Monterey Bay, California, by Douglas Croft, 60, and whale watcher Kate Cummings.

“It was quite exciting! Salmon season coincides with the time when humpbacks are returning to Monterey Bay to feed for the summer and there were hundreds of boats on the bay fishing,” the Daily Mail quoted Croft as saying on May 13.

He added: “This whale had breached a couple of times before this and many times they'll just keep doing it. I went below deck to shoot from a porthole close to the water line. That’s what gives this amazing perspective of looking up at the whale.”

Since the whale breached behind the boat, it shows how large the animal is, he said.

“Since the boat is closer, it should look bigger, but the whale is huge! If I‘d been the fisherman, I’d probably need some new underwear,” Croft said.

Humpback whales can weigh up to 30 tons and can reach 50 feet in length.

A Humpback whale swims at the surface of the Pacific Ocean at the Uramba Bahia Malaga natural park in Colombia, on Sept. 20, 2015. Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

“It was fun capturing this video. The whale had already breached multiple times much further away from the fisherman,” Croft told the Mail.

“But sometimes when whales breach multiple times, they’re also heading a specific direction when they’re underwater building momentum for the next breach.”

“I figured the next breach would be around the fisherman because the whale was heading that way and sure enough! Though I didn’t expect the whale and the boat to line up so perfectly.”

A humpback whale leaps out of the water in the channel off of the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii on Jan. 23, 2005. Reed Saxon/AP Photo

Humpback Found in Amazon Forest

Several weeks ago, a dead humpback whale was discovered in a mangrove forest in Brazil with no obvious signs as to how it got there.

Officials think it died several days before it was discovered.

Renata Emin, the institute’s project leader, said, “We’re still not sure how it landed here, but we’re guessing that the creature was floating close to the shore and the tide, which has been pretty considerable over the past few days, picked it up and threw it inland, into the mangrove,” according to The Independent.

“Along with this astonishing feat, we are baffled as to what a humpback whale is doing on the north coast of Brazil during February because this is a very unusual occurrence.”

Oceanographer Maura Sousa said the whale was found near the mouth of the Amazon River.

“During this season, the tide normally rises twice a day to almost 4 meters (13 feet) and floods the mangrove forest, bringing lots of trash, including trash from ships from a lot of places in the world,” Sousa told CNN. “This explains why an inflated carcass, due to the gases of the decomposition, was dragged into the mangrove forest,” she said.