Two kayakers off Avila Beach, California, were thrown into the air and nearly crushed by a feeding humpback whale on Monday.
Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel were watching whales feed when a humpback whale suddenly emerged to feed on a bait ball and bit down on the boat and its occupants. The whale released them and both kayakers were unharmed, but their close call was captured on multiple videos, including McSorley’s which shows the bait ball suddenly appearing and the whale capsizing them.
“The whale was in my face, literally,” Cottriel told Fox News 26 as she recounted her instinct to “push the whale out of the way.”
“It was the weirdest thought,” she told the news station. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m dead. I’m dead.’ I thought it was gonna land on me. Next thing I know, I’m underwater.”
